Kickass Torrents' Popular Clone Site KAT.am Gets Taken Down

Last month, pirate website Kickass Torrents' alleged ringleader Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland and the domains of his website were seized. However, within hours of this news, there were several clone sites for Kickass Torrents that emerged, and proved what everybody already anticipated: pirate sites cannot be fully shut down.

However, one such clone site, KAT.am - probably the most popular out of all the clone sites, has now been taken down as a result of a notice issued by Motion Picture Association (MPA). Yes, you read it right; Hollywood is going after the clone pirate sites to curb the copyright infringement that causes millions of dollars' worth of damage to the industry every single year.

The operator of KAT.am has said, "We are not worried, because if it's not us, someone else will keep the game running. If not the alleged owner, it can be us. If we are not there, still there will surely be someone else. This never ends," quotes TorrentFreak.

The warning to KAT.am's owner from Motion Picture Association reads, "This Notice requires you to immediately (within 24 hours) take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement. All opportunities provided by the Website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the Entertainment Content should be disabled permanently."

TorrentFreak also points out that even though KAT.am is now offline due to deletion of the domain from the Armenian registry, two new domains, kickass.cd and kickass.mx, have already been launched, from where it can continue to operate.

To note, Motion Picture Association (MPA) represents six major film-studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Do Subscribe on YouTube!
Follow Me on Twitter>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1

U.S. authorities seize Kickass Torrents domains

Earlier this morning, news broke of Artem Vaulim, the founder of KickAss Torrents, being arrested in Poland and the domain name being seized, making the website unoperational.

In short, the most beloved Torrent Site for those with piracy close to their hearts has gone dark, and in all likelihood for good. Additionally, alternate popular proxies have also been swiftly taken down. As of writing this article, the five most popular KAT proxy sites, along with the main website are no longer accessible due to the fact that KAT servers across the globe are being taken down, instead of just having the domain names seized.

A federal court in Chicago also ordered that a bank account and seven domain names believed to be associated with KAT be seized.

According to the criminal complaint filed with the Chicago court, Kickass Torrents is estimated to be the 69th most commonly visited website on the internet, and has an estimated net worth of over $54 million. Between all of the movies, TV shows, music, video games, and other media it hosts for download, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell says KAT is "responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials."

Kickass Torrents domain names have been blocked before in various countries across the globe, and its main site appears to still remain functional. But if Poland cooperates with the U.S. in the extradition process, Vaulin will be tried in American courts on counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.

In a statement Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said, "[Vaulin's] arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice."

Do Subscribe on YouTube!
Follow Me on Twitter>>> @iamBhavish
And like us on Facebook>>> The Gud1