U.S. authorities have charged Artem Vaulin (the alleged owner of KickassTorrents) with criminal copyright infringement and have seized domain names associated with the website. Vaulin allegedly operated KAT under the auspices of a Ukrainian-based front company called Cryptoneat.
Artem Vaulin (30), of Kharkiv, Ukraine, was arrested in Poland on the 20th of July and is charged by criminal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. The United States will seek to extradite Vaulin to the United States.
According to the complaint, Vaulin allegedly owns and operates Kickass Torrents or KAT, a commercial website that has enabled users to illegally reproduce and distribute hundreds of millions of copyrighted motion pictures, video games, television programs, musical recordings and other electronic media since 2008. The copyrighted material is collectively valued at well over $1 billion, according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that KAT receives more than 50 million unique visitors per month and is estimated to be the 69th most frequently visited website on the internet.In addition, a federal court in Chicago ordered the seizure of one bank account and seven domain names associated with the alleged KAT conspiracy.
Several hours after the announcement, an unofficial mirror was set up by a member of IsoHunt. The isoHunt team told venturebeat that the KAT mirror is hosting files from about the last year-and-a-half. So not everything is available. There is no forum, no community, and no support. And the administrators warned not to get too attached to the mirror.
“It’s not perfect but if users need to save and archive something it’s time,” the team told VentureBeat. “We don’t know how long it can last, but at least it’s something.”
A petition to support Vaulin has been set up on The White House website and Change.org to rally support and request that Vaulin is released.
The U.S. government has a rule that states petitions with over 100,000 signatures in 30 days must receive an official response.
The following manifesto shows up when you first visit the KAT mirror:
This morning the founder of kat.cr was arrested in Poland. It is another attack on freedom of rights of internet users globally. We think it’s our duty not to stand aside but to fight back supporting our rights. In the world of regular terrorist attacks where global corporations are flooded with money while millions are dying of diseases and hunger, do you really think that torrents deserve so much attention? Do you really think this fight worth the money and resources spent on it? Do you really think it’s the real issue to care of right now? We don’t!Kat.cr is a website we all know and love, and the world will never be the same without it. That’s why before it will come back we’ve made the mirror of Kat.cr with all the torrents we could find. It’s not perfect but if you want to save and archive something, now it’s the time! We don’t know how long it can last, but at least it’s something. We will continue to fight for our freedom and you’re welcome to join us! Sign this petition on Change.org and let everybody know that there are many of us who refuse to be silent.
Our freedom is to share the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users from all over the world. By arresting him our rights are violated.
'The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. '
Sources:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-authorities-charge-owner-most-visited-illegal-file-sharing-website-copyright-infringement
http://movieweb.com/kickass-torrents-clone-mirror-website-online/
http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/21/isohunt-launches-unofficial-kat-mirror/
https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/
Written by kathy on Jul 22, 2016
People went to KAT for the community more than the torrents.
KAT's servers didn't host any of the infringing files.
KAT's servers didn't even host the .torrent files.
The accusation of making multi-millions in ad sponsored revenue needs to be proven.
The same complaint was made during the TPB trial.
Those site owners at that time said they could only wish there were that much money coming in.
Interesting, is it not, how a number of popular "pirate" sites thrive for years
All while Hollywood continues to make record breaking gross income blockbusters.
File sharing is most certainly destroying the industry.
Such heathens.
I was even the guy who chose that KAT should use TVMaze!
if using less than 30 seconds is not a copyright infringement and torrents are broken into packets smaller than 30 seconds each. I wonder if they can attempt to use this in their defense. We don't write the rules but we will find the loop holes.
A mirror is already up. Legends never die.
http://kat.am/
Is this tied to solarmovies being down???
This will not solve the problem of piracy, as there will always be methods to achieve stuff illegally over the internet :)
So, what's the next alternative? ;)
it's a very sad day, KAT.CR is the best torrent source for almost everyone uses torrent, I wish it back soon.