'Oink' cleared of fraud

tang0 · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:10

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.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tees/8461879.stm

Russinating · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:11

I miss Oink

.

* But I never downloaded anything illegal.

RadoX · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:12

Russinating said:
I miss Oink .

* But I never downloaded anything illegal.

arknor · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:15

wow 300k in paypal lol not exactly the safest place to have money

Jokester · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:20

He said the donations were to pay for the server's rental and any "surplus" would eventually be used to buy a server.

Yeah riiighhhttt. How much is a server these days?

I suspect the next step is for the music industry to sue him and if they lose, I'm opening a music sharing website as well!

£11k a month, blimey.

Russinating · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:21

Jokester said:
Yeah riiighhhttt. How much is a server these days?

I suspect the next step is for the music industry to sue him and if they lose, I'm opening a music sharing website as well!

£11k a month, blimey.

From reading a couple of the articles, it probably helped to "clear" him that he didn't live a lavish lifestyle and that it was all just in savings. If I remember rightly he still lived in a bedsit with a few other students and didn't actually spend any of the donations.

Bit harder to pass it off for server use when you get arrested on your yacht off the coast of Monaco

.

hsp70 · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:22

oink was amazing. It's library was vast and they were very strict with quality and maintaining ratio's so there was never any dead torrents. I would happily have paid for a service like that at the time when the only alternative was itunes.

* But I never downloaded anything illegal.

Sic · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:31

That's the cornerstone of the whole case really - it's hardly conspiracy to defraud if you have never spent any of the proceeds on yourself. Of course, he could've been conspiring to...

ac1d1ty · 15 Jan 2010 at 18:37

Sic said:
That's the cornerstone of the whole case really - it's hardly conspiracy to defraud if you have never spent any of the proceeds on yourself. Of course, he could've been conspiring to...

Thought crimes. OMG!

Vonhelmet · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:45

He was still breaking the law... They just haven't charged him with/sued him for the right thing yet.

Biohazard · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:48

Not bad for some people... what'll happen to the cash?

fini · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:56

Whatever he wants, he hasn't been found guilty of any crime.

Biohazard · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:57

Nice.

Even if it has stopped, that is some money to accrue so young! wow.

iviv · 15 Jan 2010 at 19:59

Biohazard said:
Nice.

Even if it has stopped, that is some money to accrue so young! wow.

But what can he do with the money? If he spends it, that means he can be charged with for consipracy to defraud, right?

Locke · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:04

iviv said:
But what can he do with the money? If he spends it, that means he can be charged with for consipracy to defraud, right?

Though, he's been cleared so he can spend it?

Kemik · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:05

iviv said:
But what can he do with the money? If he spends it, that means he can be charged with for consipracy to defraud, right?

I thought he just got found not guilty for fraud so he can't be judged twice for the same crime.

Jokester · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:05

Locke said:
Though, he's been cleared so he can spend it?

Indeed, double jeopardy and all that.

Janesy B · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:05

Locke said:
Though, he's been cleared so he can spend it?

No.

Biohazard · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:06

Janesy B said:
No.

Care to explain?

Seft · 15 Jan 2010 at 20:07

Jokester said:
Yeah riiighhhttt. How much is a server these days?

I suspect the next step is for the music industry to sue him and if they lose, I'm opening a music sharing website as well!

£11k a month, blimey.

200,000 users has to add up, surely? Especially considering that each peer will check in every 30mins or so.