European officials dealt a painful blow to criminals everywhere with last month's Operation Ark Royal-a daring series of raids and arrests in Britain and Amsterdam.
But the crimes in question weren't exactly the standard sort. The contraband seized was more akin to Dell than dope, and the alleged criminals look more like that sweaty kid from history class than characters from a Guy Ritchie film.
This all took place on Oct. 23, when an international group of law enforcement agencies made headlines by shutting down OiNK's Pink Palace, a leading player in the world of illegal file sharing. The site's Amsterdam-based host's servers were seized, and its 24-year-old creator, Alan Ellis, was arrested on fraud charges.
With a user base over 180,000 strong, OiNK had long been a target of anti-piracy groups. The site-which operated as an invitation-only BitTorrent file-sharing community-was seen by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry as the "primary source worldwide for illegal pre-release music." Some reports estimate that, in 2007 alone, OiNK was the original source for over 60 leaks.
"I think the biggest problem that people in the record industry had with OiNK was that, if something leaked, it leaked on OiNK first," said one Duke student, a former OiNK user who wished to remain anonymous for legal reasons.
Because of its reputation, the site became something of a lightning rod within the artistic community. Some artists, such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, were active proponents of the site, though most rallied against it.
David Phipps, keyboardist for electronic group Sound Tribe Sector 9, publicly denounced OiNK in a open letter to fans, saying: "When you steal my music, YOU ARE STEALING FOOD FROM MY DAUGHTER'S PLATE. Consider sts9 via OiNK to be triple-hexed."
With such attention fixed on it, the site was forced to take extreme measures to stay alive. Earlier this year, it went so far as to relocate its domain from the United Kingdom to the (all but) Democratic Republic of Congo. The move forestalled its shutdown, but ultimately proved only to be a temporary fix.
Today, OiNK's Web site greets visitors with a call for alms. Beneath an image of the site's iconic pig shedding a single tear, Ellis has posted links to PayPal accounts dedicated to his legal fund. On another part of the page, he asks for a job to replace the one he recently lost. But amidst all this lamentation, there's also a link to a list of suggested OiNK alternatives-probably the most resonant feature of the post-OiNK fallout.
"OiNK was the file-sharing destination," said the former OiNK user. "Now there's this huge divide between supply and demand. People want to share music-they're just trying to figure out where to do it."
A number of potential replacements have popped up in the past weeks, though none have made clearly determined advances towards taking OiNK's place. In order to accommodate the influx of homeless pirates, many Torrent sites have expanded their servers, making room for new users during open sign-up periods.
Fully aware that a successful file-sharing site is dependent on a robust user base, the Recording Industry Association of America has waged a very long and very public war against individual uploaders of copyrighted music. In the process, they've targeted a wide array of offenders, ranging from college students to 13-year-old girls to dead people.
The RIAA finds violations through searches of peer-to-peer servers. Using the IP address in question, they then will attempt to contact the responsible party and threaten suit against them.
Director of Judicial Affairs Stephen Bryan estimates that Duke receives at least 25 notifications of copyright infringement from the RIAA each semester. In an effort to protect students, the University refuses to release the name of the student associated with the IP address in question. But they do forward the RIAA's request to the student.
These letters-which pinpoint specific tracks, times and servers-often simply request that the student stop sharing the file immediately. If the student continues to share music and subsequent letters are received, the University takes judicial action. Two letters merits a meeting with a Residence Coordinator. Three leads to formal disciplinary action, though this is often just a documented warning.
"The University doesn't condone illegal downloading of copyrighted material, but we are not actively monitoring servers for violations," said Bryan. "Frankly, this kind of violation is in the lower scope of Judicial seriousness. Mostly, we talk to them about it because of their personal liability."
Unfortunately, the RIAA's reaction isn't quite so tempered. In addition to the warning letters, the University has also received a number of prelitigation threats from the organization. These too are forwarded on to students, as was recently reported in The Chronicle. At least six students have settled thus far, while others still face the threat of litigation.
"I don't agree with [the RIAA's] tactics," said Bryan, "They say, 'We're about to sue you, but if you want to settle, go to this Web site. And, by the way, we accept all major credit cards.'"
Most of those who receive letters from the RIAA trade music over peer-to-peer servers such as Limewire. BitTorrent servers such as OiNK make it harder to pinpoint IP addresses, because files are downloaded from a number of sources simultaneously. Still, access to backlogs following the seizure of OiNK servers bode ill for some former users, especially those who shared unreleased content.
As one intellectual property lawyer told the Idolator blog, "They should be very, very scared."
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