|
Music piracy site, Oink, raided |
|
|
|
Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
|
|
Wednesday, 24 October 2007 |
 British police have closed down what they claim is one of the world's largest
music piracy websites after a two-year pan-European operation. A series of raids
in Middlesbrough and Amsterdam resulted in the arrest of a 24-year-old man and
the closure of Oink, a private website that allowed users to locate and download
music and other files.
The raid came in the same week when TV-Links.co.uk was raided for section 92 of the
Trade Mark Act, on suspicion of supplying property with a registered
trademark, without permission. TV-Links being one of the more popular site for watching streaming music videos, movies and television programmes.
TV-Links, was a place where users could post
links to content so that other web users could
view them. The site didn't host the material directly.
Struan Robertson, legal eagle at Pinsent Masons, and editor of
Out-Law.com, said with regards to TV-Links,
There are criminal provisions in the
Trade Marks Act, but they are intended to catch the sale of counterfeit
goods, not the supply of a service. I'd be surprised if the provision
of links was found to be a criminal offence under the Trade Marks Act
They'd have to show that he was distributing or communicating copyrighted works.
And that is a legal argument to be had between the prosecution and defence. It
sounds like they are trying to crow-bar activity that looks wrong into laws that
aren't really designed to deal with it
Just a couple of days ago, Oink, was raided as can be seen in this video.
The target of the high-profile file sharing raid in Middlesbrough, as seen above, has
been released on bail pending further investigation, Cleveland police said this
morning.
The man, who cannot be named, has not been charged with any offence relating
to his alleged role in the Oink BitTorrent site. He was arrested on suspicion of
conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringement.
|
