One year ago today OiNK’s Pink Palace was shut down by police. It’s only appropriate to pour one out for it today.

OiNK had been in operation for a little over three years; I had joined exactly one year before it was shut down, invited to the party by CrunchGear alum Vince Veneziani, who’s now kicking about over at GearFuse. Be sure to say hi.

The thing about OiNK (and its primary successors, What.cd and Waffles.fm) is that it wasn’t really ever about getting music for free. To anyone with a job, paying $1 per song is more or less equivalent to paying $0 a song. Music is a commodity. What the labels don’t recognize, or consciously refuse to recognize, is that there was a very real community on OiNK. It was that community that made OiNK special, not being able to download some pop album a few days before it shipped to Wal-Mart.

I’m not old enough to remember the days of being able to walk into a dingy record store in the East Village and listen to The Velvet Underground & Nico for the first time, but that’s exactly what OiNK was like. At least that’s how I perceive it. You had there a group of music fans, both on the site itself and its IRC room, that would, fantastically, discuss music on a level that no amount of venture capital will be able to replicate. People genuinely and relentlessly into music—none of this Pro Tools-enhanced nonsense that passes for music on radio today—interacting, sharing their feelings and opinions on what makes that one album special to them. It was neat.

And for all the money and artificial, Techmeme-fueled buzz something like LaLa generates, it doesn’t really address that community aspect of music. Great, my music’s now in the cloud—how does that enhance my listening experience or my enjoyment of music? Compare that to What.cd, which, without millions of dollars from the latest Silicon Valley know-it-all, has developed its own codebase; launched an innovate Collage feature wherein related albums are grouped together, thereby ensuring you discover new music on a daily basis; and has an impressive collection of lossless albums that you won’t find on any of the cookie cutter online music stores.

Most importantly, What.cd has a community, and it’s one that comes very close to matching OiNK’s.

So while the record labels attempt to sue their way back into our hearts, or license their music to two-bit social media applications, the rest of us can, and should, sit back and remember OiNK today.

A new study says what we’ve been saying for God knows how long: [music] piracy is here to stay. It’s now up to the industry to figure out how to move forward.

The study, by the MCPS-PRS Alliance (the record companies) and Big Champagne (they measure stuff online!), looked at piracy through the lens of Radiohead’s In Rainbows, the album that was released last fall as a digital download, priced at whatever you wanted to pay. The numbers show that illegal downloads via torrent sites “far exceeded” legal downloads. Some 400,000 torrent downloads occurred the first day it was available.

The study also concludes that there’s a strong brand loyalty toward torrents sites, like OiNK back in the day, and What.cd and Waffles.fm now. It makes sense, seeing as though I can grab a FLAC copy of more or less every album I’d be looking for, complete with PDF/JPG liner notes, in a few minutes. Seconds if it’s a particularly popular album, like Viva la Vida.

In conclusion, the record companies are urged to add value to their music-buying experience if they want to remain relevant.

It’s not even about getting music for free anymore. It’s that the entire BitTorrent experience—I’m a What.cd fan—, from A to Z, is so unrivaled in its quality, why would I even bother with an iTunes or Rhapsody or whatever?

via Drudge

More information has emerged on the OiNK-related arrests of last week. (Please don’t call it “oinkgate;” The “gate” suffix is banned here.)

A total of six people were arrested in Cleveland (in the UK), all of them for sharing “pre-release” albums. All those ADVANCEs you downloaded? They range in age from 19 to 33.

Oh, boy, this is getting interesting.

TorrentFreak has learnt that the OiNK Six were arrested on Conspiracy to Defraud the Music Industry.

And if that doesn’t seem like the most absurd crime of them all, I don’t know what.

UK police, making gentle the life of this world… for the music industry.

A former OiNK user was arrested last week, TorrentFreak has learnt. The user, who was not identified, was later released on bail. More arrests are expected.

This news should concern a lot of us here, I’m going to assume. For one, if the police are involved, and not some anti-piracy watchdog like MediaDefender, it suggests that the post-OiNK investigations are criminal in nature (as opposed to civil).

Just as troubling, the arrested user’s crime was the seeding of a single album. A show of hands: how many of you are seeding at least one album right now?

Would now be the time to shutter Azureus for good? It would be prudent to wait for more information before taking any drastic measures, I think.

Does the current invitation system used by so-called private BitTorrent sites need to be changed? TorrentFreak, a source of inspiration to nearly everyone on staff here, thinks out loud about this very subject in a recent column. At first, these private sites were largely under the radar of the average after school pirate. A small, trustworthy user base was more valued than 10,000+ ratio farming users. Invites, so the article contends, is partly to blame.

Invites were initially hard to come by, a sort of “I know someone who knows someone” scenario. Now you simply throw “torrent invites” into Google (or worse, eBay) and walk right into any number of sites. The community suffers, the “feeling” of community suffers and then law enforcement agencies shut you down. Not good.

If there’s a solution to this problem, other than entertainment companies getting their acts together and stopping piracy before it starts, then I certainly don’t know what it is. Accounts, and their invitees, are already banned if it’s discovered it’s selling invites.

Just something to mull over during the post-MacWorld haze.

Trading BitTorrent Tracker Invites – Commodity or Curse? [TorrentFreak]

We wrote a brief primer on piracy a few months ago, discussing the ins and outs of several different methods of getting your free, daily fix of music, movies and software. This quarter’s issue of 2600: The Hacker Quarterly (you can usually find it semi-hidden in the computer magazine section of Barnes & Noble) has an article on piracy you might want to read. It’s slightly outdated—it refers to OiNK as still be around—but it’s the ending I found particularly interesting.

Warez ain’t what it used to be.

The author says that today’s warez site admins are only in it for the money, using donations intended for the site instead for personal gain. There’s too much quantity and not enough quality warez out there these days.

Also in the issue is a few quick ways to screw around with your friends’ Facebook profiles: free gifts (from strangers), mood alterations and so on. (I’m not even lying when I say I just spent the last 20 minutes changing Biggs’ mood. SuperWall seems to be incredibly vulnerable, FYI.) Certainly worth the $6 or so I just spent.

Winter Issue Of 2600 Released [2600]

What.cd?, one of the two main OiNK successors, is developing an entirely new set of site code, promising to be faster and more secure than the old TBsource. (TBsource is used by several private BitTorrent trackers and is among the least efficient and horrifying code to look at. So I’m told. I don’t speak programmer language.) It’s going by the name of Project Gazelle, which not only implies speed, but also the inability to outrun big cats. Technical jargon aside, all it means for you, the average BitTorrent user, is the What.cd? will run smoother than ever and smoother than any private tacker out there. Your download speeds, however, won’t increase.

In related news, it seems What.cd? just opened its door to more users. First three folks to email me at nicholas at crunchgear dot com get an invite.

What.cd To Launch New BitTorrent Tracker Script [Torrentfreak]

First OiNK died, then came the replacements. Now one of those is gone, never having gotten of the ground. BOiNK, the Pirate Bay’s planned all-music BitTorrent tracker, has been cancelled. It seems TPB’s powers that be figured that there were enough OiNK replacements out there, so there was no real reason for yet another one.

This leaves Waffles.fm and What.cd?, the former, I feel, will be much harder to get into than the latter because invites aren’t given out too frequently. Better troll those invite exchange forums if you want in. (Or wait till the sites open up and I’ll give a few out here. Trust me, I won’t put you through any hoops to win.)

The Pirate Bay Cancels OiNK Replacement [Torrent Freak]

And people wonder why kids these days resort to piracy. I was just browsing Beatport looking for a certain mix of The Gossip’s “Jealous Girls.” Lo and behold it’s on the site, mine for $1.49, which isn’t entirely unreasonable (I once paid $2.49 for a single MP3), especially considering it’s a DRM-free 320kbps MP3. So I go ahead and click “buy,” only to be told “hey there, hot stuff, that song is territorially restricted, better luck next time.”

Oh really?

So because I couldn’t legally purchase the song, as I was fully prepared to do, I fired up SolarSeek and within two minutes had it playing in iTunes. How are music companies expected to compete with illegal downloads when good samaritans like myself can’t legally purchase them? It’s simply mind blowing that stupid things like territory restrictions still exist.

/end rant

Get your act together, Beatport

You know, in this post-OiNK world, music fans can’t be too careful when it comes to picking a new BitTorrent tracker. That’s why when I woke up this morning I was fully convinced that that RIAA had shut down What.cd?, one of the two biggest trackers comprised of former OiNK users (the other being Waffles). It seems someone is out to “get” What.cd? for whatever reason, subjecting the site and its users to SQL attacks, DDoS attacks, general mischief, etc.

Alas, the e-mail I got from the RIAA was just from some punk kid in the UK. Dork.

So here’s the e-mail in its entirety:

Dear registered user of the site What.cd,

We have recently been investigating the activities of the users of the
site http://www.what.cd/ and we have found that this site exists for the
sole purpose of music piracy.

Pirating music is a criminal offence and we believe it should be obvious
to you that the results outweigh the benefits – hard working artists
won’t be rewarded for their work and will stop producing music,
ultimately leading to a severely reduced selection of music both in the
shops and for download.

The RIAA had hoped that the disabling by the police of the large illegal
music site, Oink.cd, would stop a lot of people from engaging in piracy,
as they don’t want to be seen as criminals. However, this appears to
not be the case, as two large new sites have sprung up in its place.

This email is the final warning to all of you who were members of
Oink.cd and are current members of What.cd. If we find you to be
committing any more criminal acts of piracy then we will have to press
charges against you, as representatives of the major record companies of
America.

Yours Faithfully,

The RIAA

Then I logged into What.cd? to see what’s up and was greeted by some Watergate-like piece of investigative journalism. It turns out the kid responsible for the hacks and phony RIAA e-mails is a member of the site and is a total jerk. At 14-years-old, Peter Cole must have nothing better to do than to prove his “1227″ skills (”1227″ is the new “1337″) against some silly music site.

A whole lotta grief caused by one rogue user. For shame.

What.cd?

Poor Wired. Its post on how to “cheat” the music industry could be one of the lamest I’ve ever seen. It’s essentially Digg bait, despite the fact that, at this point, everyone everywhere has already done such an article, including us. “But it’s up to you to fill in the blanks.” Sure, OK.

Listed sites/services include Lala.com, Last.fm, BOiNK (oh, you mean that cheap publicity stunt?), Blin.com and Albumbase. Try not to yawn.

For the record, I find myself going to BeatPort more often. That’s not to say that I haven’t joined What.cd (invites are shut off right now, otherwise I’d hand them out), but there’s something to be said for convenience.

CHEAT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: NEVER PAY FOR MUSIC [Wired How To's]

I’ve gotten into both Waffles and What.CD? and while they don’t quite match OiNK on all levels, it’s still a great effort by both parties. I’ve found myself uploading and using What.CD? more than Waffles though, mostly due to the fact that Waffles is down and sucking. If it boiled down to making a choice right now, I’d definitely choose What.CD?.

The funny thing is that when I first joined What.CD? yesterday, there were no ratio requirements. Now the ratio is back and everyone got 10GB of upload credit so that people start downloading. That’s the thing! People aren’t downloading enough! Everyone is busy uploading to get the amount of content back up to that of OiNK’s Pink Palace.

Well, with that said. I have 2 invites to What.CD? for you readers. Leave a comment letting me know why I should send you one. Use your real e-mail address in the comments, as I’ll be sending an invite to it should you win.

What.CD?

It’s no secret that OiNK was full of different people, ranging from teenagers in high school to accountants from Sweden. Now Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor himself is publicly admitting he used OiNK for pirating music. “I steal music too, I’m not gonna say I don’t” says Reznor.

In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Reznor talks about how OiNK was the “world’s greatest record store” thanks to its content and quality. What really bugs him is iTunes and Apple’s way of selling music.

“iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc.”

I’m sure many of us feel the same way – especially regarding John Mayer’s face popping up every second. Glad to see that a huge player in the music industry like Trent is on our side.
Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK [NY Mag via TorrentFreak]

Rob over at Demonbaby is pissed. At the music industry, at the takedown of OiNK – everything is driving this guy mad. Hence why he took to his blog and decided to really let the public know the state of today’s music industry. Rob used to work for the big labels from the late 1990s into the 2000s and knows a thing or two about how they work and what they loathe. In the end, as you probably expected, it’s all about profit and money.

Most of us are like Rob in ways. We loathe the RIAA and the big labels that nearly force us to pirate due to exorbitant prices on the music they both sell. The newspapers adapted to the age of the Internet, so why can’t the labels? Ultimately, Rob suggests boycotting the RIAA by purchasing non-RIAA music, pirating, writing to labels and even contacting your congressman. The post is one of the longest reads around on the issue, but is by all means necessary. I highly recommend taking a 20-30 minutes out of your day and reading it. It’ll change the way you view and hear your music.

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide [Demonbaby]

It won’t be private and it won’t have many torrents, but Oink Boink will have the might of TPB behind it, allowing us all to rest easy tonight knowing that you’ll be able to get all your music for free. The best part?

The most important thing about BOiNK is perhaps the message it sends out to the IFPI and the BPI: It shows that that if you stop one tracker, others will pop up days after. It is a hydra. Call it a slap in the face if you want.

That’s right, people who don’t care and have plenty of lawyers, Bittorrent is a hydra! Like in Clash of the Titans. Only with fewer owls.

The Pirate Bay To Bring Back OiNK [TorrentFreak]

OiNK users don’t have to worry about being prosecuted, according to the site’s admin. OiNK, the man, the myth, the legend, gave an impromptu IRC interview following his release from custody. In it, he tries to reassure fans, saying that the authorities had little to no technical knowledge (neither, it seems, does the mainstream media, judging by its reporting of the site’s closure) and that the site’s logs didn’t contain any incriminating information.

Any plans for an “OiNK successor” are unclear. When asked, all OiNK (the guy) could say was “no comment.”

It really is a shame to see the site go, piracy aside. The active, knowledgeable community was just as valuable as the torrents.

OiNK Speaks! ..the Truth Comes Out… He Doesn’t Eat Meat! Shocking! [Official OiNK CD Memorial and News]

Police raided and shut down the OiNK BitTorrent site earlier today after a two-year investigation, shocking users across the BT community. Additionally, the 24-year-old man who ran the site was arrested. Good luck, bro.

I really love this quote by one of the anti-piracy guys that make OiNK users sound like war criminals:

OiNK was central to the illegal distribution of pre-release music online. This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.

What a paranoid industry, thinking everyone’s out to get them.

Well it was fun while it lasted. The thing that always amused me on OiNK was how so many people wanted you to keep it a “secret.” “Don’t tell anyone about us, we want to stay under the radar.” I should hope these people didn’t think the authorities were oblivious to the site’s existence. That would be stupid.

Music piracy Web site closed after UK, Dutch raids [Reuters]