OiNK Ringleader: I Object To Your Characterization Of Me As The Creator And Facilitator Of A Large Piracy Operation

jharv | October 25, 2007 9:30 am
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Well, the head OiNKer has finally spoken to the press, and though his defense of OiNK is hardly novel in the annals of illegal downloading, it’s still funny!

“As far as I am aware no-one in Britain has ever been taken to court for running a website like mine. My site is no different to something like Google.

“If Google directed someone to a site they can illegally download music they are doing the same as what I have been accused of. I am not making any Oink users break the law. People don’t pay to use the site.”

You sure? ‘Cause I bet what a lot of smart people–like the lawyers we talked to earlier in the week and prosecutors and judges and blog readers–really hear when they hear that is:

“If Google directedcreated a Google-approved space in which someone to a site theycan illegally download music they are doing the same as what I have been accused of. I am not making any Oink users break the law, I am merely helping to facilitate their breaking of the law, which is in itself a crime, as well as using their donation money to maintain the equipment used to help them break the law, and so ditto to my last comment. People don’t pay to use the site, but even discounting the donations, they are recieving goods/services (new copyrighted material) in exchange for pirating copyrighted material (comitting a criminal act).”

Yeah, that’s better. Even if it sounds more like copping a plea than a defense. And sounds a lot like what we hear every time someone gets busted for piracy. (And yeah, yeah, how dare we defame the beloved clown prince of OiNK with these slanderous mischaracterizations.)

OiNK Founder: We’re Just Like Google [Daily Telegraph]