In a dramatic turn of events, OiNK administrator Alan Ellis was found not guilty of Conspiracy to Defraud the music industry. In a UK courtroom, the jury disagreed with the music industry's prosecution and let Alan walk away a free man. This is the first time a file-sharing administrator has beaten the charge against him.

If Alan lived in the United States, things would have ended much differently for him. The Napster and MGM vs Grokster cases firmly set the precedent against file-sharing administrators. EliteTorrents was the last large US based tracker, however the actions of its administration (namely uploading Revenge of the Sith) led to its downfall, including the incarceration of its owner for six months.

Alan would have fared no better in Sweden, where recent government crackdowns on copyright infringement has the ex-administrators of The Pirate Bay looking at a significant fine and potential jail time. The Netherlands is no more hospitable, where BREIN has chased out most of the big BitTorrent sites, such as Demonoid

But this seems to be a first of its kind in the United Kingdom, giving Alan a good shot since there was no precedence against him. His defense brought in University of London professor Birgitte Andersenok, who testified that file-sharing didn't hurt music sales. Additionally, the defense argued that OiNK was no different than Google or any other search engine that points to information. Ars technica is reporting that OiNK was in regular contact with the music industry, but he was never ordered to take the site down.

The jury in this case is certainly responsible for a landmark decision. It's incredibly rare that a case like this ends in the favor of the defense. Will the UK be the next haven for file-sharers? What impact will this have on other UK file-sharing cases?

Date: 2010-01-15 Source: http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=1897