Oink Bitorrent Tracker - Still No Charges Laid

[GhostShip]

This case is proving a complete annoyance to the UK's police force as so far they have failed to secure any evidence of a crime despite making a big press release claiming the sites operator was operating a massive web site of illegal files for people to obtain.

http://torrentfreak.com/oinks-bail-date-again-extended-by-police-080502/

Over six months have passed since the popular private BitTorrent tracker OiNK was raided in a joint effort by Dutch and British law enforcement. Today, the bail date for OiNK admin Alan Ellis has been extended for the third time, now until the 1st of July.

Cleveland police initially stated that the charges against Alan would be announced December 2007, but this was soon postponed for two months due to a lack of evidence. Interestingly, the police did return OiNK’s servers at the time, after they erased the hard drives. In February the bail date was extended for the second time, only to be extended yet again today.

TorrentFreak contacted Cleveland Police, but we were told that there was was no one available at the press office who could comment on the bail extension. Most likely, they need more time to gather evidence from the computers, laptop and mobile phones they still have in their possession.

With the third extension in a row, the speculation about potential charges continues. At the moment it remains unclear what evidence the police are trying to find, but I assume they have figured out by now that the site is not as evil as the IFPI and BPI wanted them to believe

Operating a bit torrent tracker has never been deemed to be illegal in the UK so its unlikely any charges will be laid unless this guy was selling or making money from this operation. It is of concern to me how without any evidence save the word of the recording industry Cartel a web site was stolen and erased by the police, lets hope this back fires on them, justice after all must be done as well as seen to be done.

[Trestor]

I'd like to see the police lay a string of changes against the cartel. False reporting, wasting police resources, fraud, the list could go on.

[..Ñøßߥ..]

Im sure the gentlemen in question will have plenty of backups in secure locations, the police will no doubt come up with some dumb charge like lack of swamp insurance or failure to pay window tax etc,  the guy will get a fine, and have the site back up  quick smart. Hopefully he will have enough financial clout to hire a decent lawyer, and sue for damages.