OiNK was shut down last October following a joint venture between Cleveland Police, Interpol and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Up to 180,000 members used the site to share high quality music files via popular peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent. Site founder Alan Ellis, 24, was arrested shortly after the site's closure on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringement. He remains on police bail.
The site was singled out under Operation Ark Royal last year after it was discovered that users were sharing pre-released music. A statement released by the British Phonographic Industry said: "The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation."
In the US last year, single mother Jammie Thomas became the first individual to be successfully prosecuted by the Recording Industry Association of America for copyright infringement. Thomas was ordered to pay $222,000 (£113,085) in damages after being found guilty of illegal file-sharing. The fine amounted to $9,250 (£4,711) for each of the 24 tracks she was prosecuted over.
However, these latest arrests are the first time British police have taken direct action against individual users of a file-sharing site. They were released on bail pending further enquiries and are due to appear in court on July 1.
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