'RIAA' Sends Warning to Users of Hacked OiNK Successor

Someone apparently hacked the user database of the post-OiNK torrent tracker site What.cd and sent an email to its registered users warning them that if they're former OiNK users, they'd better stop using What.cd right away or risk facing an RIAA lawsuit.

A tipster sent a copy of the email to Idolator, which calls it "a pretty obvious fake," based in part on the English spelling of "offence." Apparently, it's someone's idea of a joke to freak out What.cd users with a faux email from the RIAA.

Here's what the email said:

Dear registered user of the site What.cd,

We have recently been investigating the activities of the users of thesite http://www.what.cd/ and we have found that this site exists forthe sole purpose of music piracy.

Pirating music is a criminal offence and we believe it should beobvious to you that the results outweigh the benefits - hard workingartists won't be rewarded for their work and will stop producing music,
ultimately leading to a severely reduced selection of music both in theshops and for download.

The RIAA had hoped that the disabling by the police of the largeillegal music site, Oink.cd, would stop a lot of people from engagingin piracy, as they don't want to be seen as criminals. However, thisappears to not be the case, as two large new sites have sprung up inits place.

This email is the final warning to all of you who were members ofOink.cd and are current members of What.cd. If we find you to becommitting any more criminal acts of piracy then we will have to presscharges against you, as representatives of the major record companiesof America.

Yours Faithfully,

The RIAA

I agree that this is almost certainly a fake; it may even have come from one of the developers working on a competing OiNK alternative (an RIAA email is probably the best way to scare people away from the other guy's torrent tracker).

Or is it possible that the RIAA hired a Brit to hack tracker sites and send nastygrams out to their users?

(via idolator)