Oink.cd was a free music sharing torrent site with a huge catalogue that rivaled Napster. It avoided prosecution for so long by only letting people in through invites, which were hard to come by and coveted. Like some of the invite-only paparazzi photo sharing communities that I have no personal experience with because all of our photos are now legally obtained and paid for, Oink became one of the main sources of a lot of pre-release CD leaked online, which would then trickle down throughout the Internet. It operated through torrents, which means that all files were hosted and downloaded from user’s computers, not from a central location, and had about 80,000 active members, according to Wikipedia.

Oink.cd is no longer in operation, having just been shut down by Interpol after investigations by music industry organizations The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The guy thought to have started it, a 24 year-old computer worker from England, was arrested yesterday, his home and place of work searched and computers seized. He was released on bail today after being questioned for “suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright” by British police. Servers were also seized in Amsterdam. News reports say he profited greatly from the site, and he may have made some money, but the site was free and operated on donations. I doubt anyone got much more than music out of the deal.

The media is hyping this into a big mysterious piracy ring bust, and I guess you could see it that way, but to me it’s just another way that the record industry has failed to keep up with technical demand. iTunes exists, and there are ways to buy some, but not all, digital music in formats that allow you to burn CDs and have it on more than one device. You usually can’t download a specific entire album you want, though, especially if it’s rare or older.

Several top artists are now without music contracts, and Radiohead just set a big precedent by offering their latest album, In Rainbows, online, with a price to be determined by the user. They’re probably making much more per download then they could per CD under the old obsolete rules, which the music industry is clinging to and defending with their last, raspy breath.

The website for Oink.cd has been replaced by a scary message saying it was shut down thanks to all these worldwide police agencies (Cleveland refers to Cleveland in the UK, not in Ohio) with a note that they’re going to look into the activities of users. People are naturally scared, but it’s doubtful police have the resources or the wherewithal to pursue even heavy sharers and downloaders, unless the music industry wants to go after them, and they might. After all, music licensing companies have hounded small coffee shops to pay royalty fees on cover songs performed by independent artists. They’ll stop at nothing.

You can understand how the music industry would want to shut down Oink, and it’s illegal to download music like that, but Napster was shut down 8 years ago. They’ve had enough chance to create a profitable rival, but instead they’ve just acted like bullies.

Here’s a good article about why Oink was so useful a music source