October 23, 2007 14:14

Illegal download site shut down in police raid

Interpol help leads to arrest of 24-year-old Middlesbrough man

One of the world’s biggest websites for pre-release illegal downloads, OiNK, has been shut down by police, and its alleged owner has been arrested.

OiNK was a subscription-based website with over 180,000 members, and made money through users paying voluntary donations.

Cleveland police worked with Interpol in the raid, which culminated in the arrest of a 24-year-old man from Middlesbrough – the alleged organiser of OiNK – and the seizure of the website’s servers in Amsterdam.

OiNK provided major release albums before their scheduled release dates, which relied on users sharing music with each other using peer-to-peer program BitTorrent.

Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of the British Phonographic Industry, said he hoped the authorities would keep applying pressure on illegal downloaders.