'Oink' Creator found not guilty

Alan Ellis, founder of ‘Oink’, a music sharing website, was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

The site, closed down in 2007, facilitated the download of 21 million music files. Mr Ellis reportedly received up to £11,000 a month in “donations” from users of which he claimed was to go towards costs of running the site, and eventually buying a server.

The site, hosted in Amsterdam, was created from a free template which Mr Ellis stated had a torrent file-sharing facility on it. Though it did not host any music itself, it indexed files that users had available for others to download. 

Giving evidence, Mr Ellis claimed that there was no intention to defraud copyright holders and that the site was set up to “further” his skills and employability.

The software engineer declined to comment as he left the court.  He is the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing.

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