defunct file-sharing web site

KickassTorrents ( normally abbreviated KAT ) was a web site that provided a directory for downpour files and attraction links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. It was founded in 2008 and by November 2014, KAT became the most visit BitTorrent directory in the global, overtaking The Pirate Bay, according to the web site ‘s Alexa ranking. [ 1 ] KAT went offline on 20 July 2016 when the domain was seized by the U.S. politics. The site ‘s proxy servers were shut down by its staff at the like time. [ 2 ]

In December 2016, former KAT staff members revived the KAT community by creating a web site with its harbinger ‘s features and appearance. [ 3 ]

history

KAT was initially launched in November 2008 at the domain name kickasstorrents.com. In April 2011, it moved to a philippine world kat.ph after a series of sphere name seizures by the US Department of Justice against Demonoid and Torrentz. [ 4 ] The web site late moved across several different domains, which the operators planned to do every six months, including ka.tt, kickass.to, kickass.so, kickasstorrents.im and kat.cr. [ 5 ] In June 2016, KAT added an official Tor net .onion address. [ 6 ]

Blocking and censoring

KickassTorrents on its web site claimed that it complied with the DMCA and it removed infringing torrents reported by capacity owners. [ 7 ] On February 28, 2013, Internet serve providers ( ISPs ) in the United Kingdom were ordered by the high Court in London to block entree to KickassTorrents, along with two other torrent sites. Judge Richard Arnold ruled that the locate ‘s design contributed to copyright violation. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] On 14 June, the domain diagnose was changed to Tonga sphere appoint kickass.to as a part of the site ‘s regular world exchange. [ 10 ] later on 23 June, KAT was delisted from Google at the request of the MPAA. [ 11 ] In late August 2013, KAT was blocked by belgian ISPs. [ 12 ] In January 2014, several Irish ISPs started blocking KAT, [ 13 ] and in February, Twitter started blocking links to KAT, although this was stopped after a few days. [ 14 ] In June 2014, KAT was blocked in Malaysia by the Communications and Multimedia Commission for violating copyright law. [ 15 ] In December 2014, the site moved to the Somalia domain appoint kickass.so, reportedly as a solution of locate ‘s regular domain variety. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] On 9 February 2015, kickass.so was listed as “ banned ” on Whois, causing the site to go offline. subsequently that day, the site reverted to its early domain identify kickass.to. [ 18 ] On 14 February 2015, it was found that messages mentioning “ kickass.to ” were blocked on Steam new world chat, but “ kickass.so ” and other popular torrent websites were not blocked, only flagged as “ potentially malicious ”. [ 19 ] On 23 April 2015, the site moved to the Isle of Man -based world kickasstorrents.im [ 20 ] but was cursorily taken down later that day and on 24 April it was moved to the Costa Rica based knowledge domain name kat.cr. [ 21 ] By July 2015, the kat.cr address had been removed from Google Search ‘s results. After the removal, the top Google search consequence for KAT in many locations pointed to a talk through one’s hat KAT site that prompted visitors to download malware. [ 22 ] In October 2015, Portugal bypassed its courts by making a voluntary agreement between ISPs, rightsholders and the Ministry of Culture to block access to KAT and most of the other democratic BitTorrent websites. [ 23 ] At the like time, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox blocked access to KAT because of security concerns with some of the ads pointing to malware. [ 24 ] In April 2016, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox blocked KAT ascribable to phishing concerns. [ 25 ] Both blocks were late removed after KAT cope with the concerns.

One of the independent domains of the locate went up for sale in August 2016. [ 26 ] [ 27 ]

Arrest of the alleged owner

Notice displayed on KickassTorrents sites after its capture. On 20 July 2016, the United States Department of Justice announced that it had seized the KAT.cr domain and had identified its alleged owner. Artem Vaulin ( ukrainian : Артем Ваулін ), a 30-year-old ukrainian man known on-line as “ tirm ”, was detained in Poland after being charged with a four-count U.S. condemnable indictment. [ 28 ] The remaining domains were taken offline voluntarily after the KAT.cr sphere name was seized. [ 29 ] Following the seizure of the original KAT knowledge domain multiple unofficial mirrors have been put online. These have no joining to the original team who have been urging users to exercise circumspection. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] A count of these mirrors have since been taken down. [ 32 ] Vaulin was arrested after investigators cross-referenced an IP address he used for an iTunes transaction with an IP address used to log into KAT ‘s Facebook page. The FBI besides posed as an advertiser and obtained details of a bank account associated with the web site. [ 29 ] The investigation was led by especial agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan, who besides tracked down Ross Ulbricht, the operator of the on-line blacken market Silk Road. [ 33 ] The criminal ailment, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by Homeland Security Investigations, said that it was in self-control of full copies of KAT ‘s hard drives, including its electronic mail server. The probe suggested that KAT made over $ 12 million per year in advertise tax income. [ 34 ] In late August 2016, the Department of Justice followed the complaint with a full fantastic jury indictment of Vaulin and two other defendants, Ievgen Kutsenko and Oleksandr Radostin ; while Vaulin was still being held in polish prison. [ 35 ] Vaulin has both a polish and US legal representation Ira Rothken as his lawyers to handle the allegations. [ 36 ] [ 37 ] In November 2016, a polish appeals court refused to allow bail for Vaulin, stating the evidence provided by the US is sufficient to keep him in prison. [ 38 ] The character of Artem Vaulin pursuance was officially put on hold after Vaulin “ disappeared ” from Poland. His bail of $ 108,000 was forfeited. His legal team was reported has withdrawn from the case after they lost contact with Vaulin. [ 39 ]

revival

In mid-december 2016, some of the erstwhile KAT staff and moderators launched a web site with a alike appearance as the original under the domain katcr.co. [ 3 ] The locate has been offline since July 2020 .

References