Oink File-Sharer Walks Free From Court

A man allegedly collecting £11,000 ($18,000) per month in donations to his file-sharing service Oink has reportedly walked free from a UK court after being found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud the music industry.

The Next Web reported that Alan Ellis, founder of the file-sharing service which gained international popularity before being shut down in 2007, had allegedly accrued savings of over £20,000 ($32,000) only months after setting up the service, which was initially hosted on a server in his bedroom.

Throughout the two-week trial Ellis had insisted that his service simply directed users to illegal downloads, with members using Oink to promote their own music files. 200,000 members downloaded over 21 million files via the service.

Ellis, the first Briton to be charged with illegal file-sharing, walked free from court today after a jury reached a unanimous verdict of Not Guilty, reports Music Week.

Story by Tim Difford

A leading innovator in the IT Outsourcing industry, Tim is often on the move but can be regularly found in Manchester and London, UK. His f (show all) A leading innovator in the IT Outsourcing industry, Tim is often on the move but can be regularly found in Manchester and London, UK. His focus is on social and mobile technologies but given half a chance he'll try to sneak music or football into his blog-posts. Tim can be found at One Greener Day and you can also follow @timdifford on Twitter.