Andre Yoskowitz
7 Jan 2010 23:09
Former private torrent tracker OiNK administrator Alan Ellis is under trial, with jury selection occurring earlier this week. Today, the jury was told that Ellis had received over $300,000 USD over the years through donations.
Additionally, Judge Briggs has told the jury to not research OiNK at all, as so far most reports on the matter are inaccurate or biased.
"It would be most unfortunate if any of you did any private research on the internet relating to this matter. Please don't," added Briggs. "It's only likely to cause difficulties and could in theory abort the trial. So, ladies and gentlemen, no independent research."
The case itself is pretty straightforward and Ellis is only charged with one case of conspiracy to defraud. "Put very simply it is suggested he was involved in a website that was used to distribute sound recordings and things of that nature in breach of copyright," Briggs noted.
Getting back to numbers, the prosecution said the OiNK tracker had led to 21 million downloads and that Ellis accepted about $300,000 in donations, although the prosecution did not mention that most, if not all, of the money went to paying for servers and hosting.
The case is ongoing.