UK file sharers arrested

Six people have become the first individuals in the UK ever to be arrested for using a file-sharing site. Five men and one woman were detained by police earlier this week in relation to the uploading of music from the now-defunct website OiNK. They were released on bail pending further enquiries.

OiNK was shut down last October following a joint venture between Cleveland Police, Interpol and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Up to 180,000 members used the site to share high quality music files via popular peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent. Site founder Alan Ellis, 24, was arrested shortly after the site's closure on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringement. He remains on police bail.

The site was singled out under Operation Ark Royal last year after it was discovered that users were sharing pre-released music. A statement released by the British Phonographic Industry said: "The illegal online distribution of music, particularly pre-release, is hugely damaging, and as OiNK was the biggest source for pre-releases at the time we moved to shut it down. We provided the information to assist this investigation."

The latest arrests are the first time British police have taken direct action against individual users of a file-sharing site. They were released on bail pending further enquiries and are due to appear in court on July 1.

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