Feds Seize KickassTorrents Domains, Arrest Owner

[Ernesto]

With millions of unique visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) has become the most-used torrent site on the Internet, beating even The Pirate Bay.

Today, however, the site has run into a significant roadblock after U.S. authorities announced the arrest of the site’s alleged owner.

The 30-year-old Artem Vaulin, from Ukraine, was arrested today in Poland from where the United States has requested his extradition.

In a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, the owner is charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.

The complaint further reveals that the feds posed as an advertiser, which revealed a bank account associated with the site.

It also shows that Apple handed over personal details of Vaulin after the investigator cross-referenced an IP-address used for an iTunes transaction with an IP-address that was used to login to KAT’s Facebook account.

“Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook,” the complaint reads.

In addition to the arrest in Poland, the court also granted the seizure of a bank account associated with KickassTorrents, as well as several of the site’s domain names.

Commenting on the announcement, Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said that KickassTorrents helped to distribute over $1 billion in pirated files.

“Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials.”

“In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits.  His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice.”

At the time of writing the main domain name Kat.cr has trouble loading, but various proxies still appear to work. KAT’s status page doesn’t list any issues, but we assume that this will be updated shortly.

TorrentFreak has reached out to the KAT team for a comment on the news and what it means for the site’s future, but we have yet to hear back.


Breaking story, in depth updates will follow.


Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and  ANONYMOUS VPN services.


Originally Published: Wed, 20 Jul 2016 21:37:11 +0000
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[Sid]

Hopefully their back end is as polished as their front end (and everyones' data is safe; and they can and will make a speedy recovery).

We've been there, we've done that, we know it sucks but that it can be done. We wish them luck.

[Sid]

It also shows that Apple handed over personal details of Vaulin after the investigator cross-referenced an IP-address used for an iTunes transaction with an IP-address that was used to login to KAT’s Facebook account.

“Records provided by Apple showed that tirm@me.com conducted an iTunes transaction using IP Address 109.86.226.203 on or about July 31, 2015. The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook,” the complaint reads.

And people (including major uploaders) wonder why we don't allow them to link to their Facebook pages.

[ShadyJay]

booooooooooo this sucks. now i have no backup torrent site

[horrorhound]

I was hoping it was just a domain switch or a huge update that got jumbled...not this.

[politux]

Ding dong the KAT is dead. Good riddance. Serves them right for complying with the DMCA. If the article is accurate it looks like the owner made a bunch of noob mistakes. iTunes purchase? Logging in to facebook with his real IP? Wtf....?

[renhoek93]

Kickasstorrents is gone & the owner has been arrested what do we do now & what does this mean for internet file sharing??.  

Moe edited Jul 20, 2016 21:52 pm this post because: Search before starting new threads. merged

[politux]

It means that complying with the DMCA is futile. Which I have been saying for years. I'm glad they are gone.

[Ruler_Of_Hell]

Even after they turned You into a spayed or neutered Woosie Cat You kept uploading there Politux ? Hate to see any sharing Site go down, but KAT Owners deserve what they'll get. They were making Millions off the Malvertising that even after being notified about it, refused to remove the ads ? That's Fucked Up. Place was being run by Admins with the same maturity level of their target audience, 12-14 Year old children. Told em to shove it Months ago so won't miss KAT much.

[politux]

Even after they turned You into a spayed or neutered Woosie Cat You kept uploading there Politux ? 

Yes I continued to upload there because they had the most traffic and I wanted my torrents to be shared as widely as possible but I consistently spoke up against the bullshit DMCA regime and blog censorship.  What did you do exactly?