A couple of years ago, OiNK.CD was a web page that attracted over 180000 users daily. It wasn’t just any other web page – it hosted OiNK’s Pink Palace music BitTorrent tracker, a celebrity among private torrent sites. However all of this changed when Operation Ark Royal, a coordinated raid by IFPI, BPI and Interpol, shut down the tracker and arrested its owner Allan Ellis back in 2007. OiNK’s homepage went dormant after the raid and its activity was limited to displaying a few about legal proceedings and donations. After a three year long legal battle, Allan Ellis finally won and walked free. With the release of Allan, OiNK’s homepage has again been updated, possibly for one last time.
The site now displays the following message:
On 15 January 2010, Alan Ellis was unanimously declared not guilty.
If you would like to get in touch with me, you can do so here: contact@alanellis.co.uk.
The solicitors representing me in the case were Morgan Rose with Alex Stein as the barrister.
I'd like to express my thanks to all those who have been in touch offering their support over the years, and the huge amount of congratulations I've received over the past few days.
There were three main questions arising from the emails:
- Will the site be returning? Absolutely not.
- Will I be available for interview? No, sorry, I would like to get on with my life in peace now.
- Where did I buy my coat? Wait, what!? Well, I'm almost ashamed to say, but it's from New Look, and judging by the fact that when I checked yesterday my local shop had more than 10 of them in stock for £30, it's not very popular!
Finally, a huge thank you to my excellent legal team, without which I wouldn't be here writing this right now.
“Will the site be returning? Absolutely not” – sadly, if any of you were waiting for the return of OiNK, the above confirms it ain’t going to happen. You cannot blame Allan though – he finally has a chance to resume his normal life after 3 painful years and I’m sure he’d want to forget about the whole ordeal and move on. However OiNK didn’t just die – two of it’s piglets (which it gave birth to when the site was raided) are still going strong today; What.CD and Waffles.FM are two prime examples of how the BitTorrent community adapts to a shut down of a major tracker.
Site Name: OiNK (http://oink.cd/)
R.I.P. OiNK and good luck to Allan Ellis with his life. Thanks for the good times.
