Oink ~ Not Guilty.

**ztx651** · 01-15-2010, 03:51 PM

Music file-sharer 'Oink' cleared of fraud

A man who ran a music-sharing website with almost 200,000 members has been found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Teesside Crown Court.
Alan Ellis, 26, was the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing.
He operated the site, called Oink, from his flat in Middlesbrough from 2004 until it was closed down in a police raid in 2007.
In that time it facilitated the download of 21 million music files.
The site allowed active members to find other people on the web who were prepared to share files.
Users were required to make a donation to be able to invite friends to join the site.
During the trial, which lasted seven days, it was heard that Mr Ellis received $18,000 (£11,000) a month in donations from people using his website.
Months after getting his degree he had saved £20,000 despite only just starting his software engineer job.
Originally, the site was hosted on his home computer, but by 2007 it had moved to a commercial server in Amsterdam because of the amount of internet traffic it was attracting.
Mr Ellis told the court there was no intention to defraud copyright holders.

Source

**OlegL** · 01-15-2010, 03:59 PM

This is great news!!!

**TheFoX** · 01-15-2010, 03:59 PM

Oink Update
January 15, 2009 16:00

" Oink creator cleared of charge

A man accused of running one of the world's largest music sharing websites has been acquitted of conspiracy to defraud.
Alan Ellis, 26, was accused of making hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Oink website, which he ran from his own bedroom.

However, a jury at Teesside Crown Court unanimously cleared the software engineer of the single charge.
Mr Ellis, of Grange Road, Middlesbrough, smiled as the jury foreman returned the not guilty verdict. He declined to speak as he left the court.

He had told the jury that he set up Oink in his bedroom to brush up on his computing skills while a student at Teesside University.
When police raided his terraced home in October 2007, they found almost 300,000 dollars in his accounts and the site had 200,000 members, who had downloaded 21 million files.

Mr Ellis said the money was used to pay for the server's rental and any "surplus" was intended to eventually buy a server.
He added that the website was developed from a free template, which had a Torrent file-sharing facility included in it. It allowed members to find other people on the web who were prepared to share files - allowing users to get hold of music for free.

Mr Ellis, who was born in Leeds and grew up in south Manchester, studying A-levels in Cheadle, said there was no intention to defraud copyright holders. He had a full-time job as a software engineer and said administering the site was just a hobby.
The prosecution said he told police officers: "All I do is really like Google, to really provide a connection between people. None of the music is on my website."

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukp...DPQctpYenbBsEg