Feds Seize KickassTorrents Domains, Arrest Owner

[Moe]

Private groups are, in my opinion, what you make of them. Just like private clubs with special interests they don't want to share. If some folks want to talk about their religious or political preferences without having outside interference from people who are rude and aggressive and think everybody should feel about everything like them, giving the private types the space to speak their own minds doesn't seem so much a circle jerk to me, as a respect for being themselves.

The closest thing you'll find to a private club is the void, which no one is a member of until they decide on their own to join.

Outside of the void, you are welcome to start a thread on any topic, including religious or political subjects. Overly rude and aggressive attacks won't be tolerated. Likewise, those who wish to engage in rude and aggressive posting can take it to the void where they will delight in getting the same in return.

While there is no user blog per se, there is no reason you can't start a new thread on whatever topic you wish to share. If it doesn't work as a topic for discussion, then in really wouldn't make much of a blog post either.


I was never a member at KAT, so I can't really say if this fits what users are looking for except to say try it. Should there be a reasonable demand for a particular topic sub-forum or other feature, we can always consider adding it.

[2Maverick]

Three points (I'll try to be brief)...

1) Any regular (heavy) uploader that wasn't/isn't duplicating their torrents across multiple sites is/was not thinking "big picture". I've been doing this (mirroring my uploads to multiple torrent sites) since I started creating torrents back in 2013. One of the other Mods (I think Sid) already stated this. Why the hell would you not want to 'advertise' your torrent in as many places as possible, and give it the most chances to stay alive?

2) I don't understand the childish "KAT sucked for this reason or that" or "PirateBay is inferior for this reason or that". I've been an uploader to all the major sites, as far as I can tell, and I don't rip or malign ANY of them! They all have their strong points and their weaknesses. Just grow up, participate with all of them (it benefits you as an uploader) and stop bitching so much.

3) I wondered about KAT's voluntary compliance with the DMCA for a long time. In other words, what did they hope to accomplish by honoring DMCA notices? I have only seen one explanation that made sense to me. The theory was not that KAT expected not to have a legal target on their back by the entertainment industry, but that by complying with the DMCA, it would take legal pressure off their web host and domain name registrar. Then when pressured by a government or industry to disconnect service to KAT, the web host or domain name registrar could say... "They appear to be complying with your rules by removing content. We don't feel it's within our authority to disconnect service." In other words, it allows a little more stability between domain name changes. I'm wondering if this might be why KAT honored the DMCA. I would love to hear a PIRATEBAY Mod/Admin chime in with their two cents on this theory, as TPB went through far more domain name changes that KAT did.

[Philidor]

You must not have had any of your blogs removed out of spite.

Can't say I did. I can say that dealing with the full spectrum of personalities on the KAT staff was a very...diverse experience. Some were extremely friendly and helpful. Others were bears. Some were sticklers for personal rule minutiae which was ignored by their more casual comrades-in-arms. It was like dealing with any group of human beings, in other words. I steered clear of the bears once I picked them out, and focused on the fine folks who made it a pleasure to know them. When I ran into road blocks--like the one you indicate--I just stopped, and did something else.

See, I was physically abused on almost daily basis for about a decade, growing up. Severe asthmatic kid, woman who wanted children because everybody had them, and weren't they too, too cute...! I made her frustrated and afraid, which made her very, very angry. When I stopped that, she took to poisoning the extended family against me. I've had great people on my side and others who shat on me. Even some who did so, not because they wanted to, but because they didn't much care about such important things as listening. Had one physician who changed my main asthma med last year because of insurance, but arbitrarily lowered the dosage (which wasn't listed) without a) telling me, or b) doing a blood panel to determine how severe my condition was. I went into cycling attacks of anaphylaxsis. Fun? You bet. Only caught the source of it because I ended up going to another physician in his practice, who was shocked at what had been done.

But the thing is--if I let these people, all of them, get to me, I would have committed suicide long ago. Literally. I thought about it a few times. There was just too fucking much on my plate. So I had to learn to adapt, or else. As someone I read once wrote, if you hate somebody, you let them live rent free in your head. I'd have had plenty of people like that. And I've got no time or energy for that shit.

Hence, road blocks. I let the OCD types have their fun, and go off and had mine somewhere else on KAT. Or anywhere else in life. I can't recommend that to you, because I haven't lived in a minute in your shoes, much less the rest of your life. But I get where bitter comes from, I really do, for what that's worth.

The closest thing you'll find to a private club is the void, which no one is a member of until they decide on their own to join.

Outside of the void, you are welcome to start a thread on any topic, including religious or political subjects. Overly rude and aggressive attacks won't be tolerated. Likewise, those who wish to engage in rude and aggressive posting can take it to the void where they will delight in getting the same in return.

While there is no user blog per se, there is no reason you can't start a new thread on whatever topic you wish to share. If it doesn't work as a topic for discussion, then in really wouldn't make much of a blog post either.


I was never a member at KAT, so I can't really say if this fits what users are looking for except to say try it. Should there be a reasonable demand for a particular topic sub-forum or other feature, we can always consider adding it.

Moe, that will work for me. I don't need a blog, and I like threads. I'll probably start some up, and hopefully others will respond. If they don't, that's life.

[nosnavis]

More integration of the site with the forum couldn't hurt. I used to think that the two places were meant to be apart, but when this place was taken down, I started using KAT reluctantly, and their community oriented philosophy made me change my mind.

[Sid]

[This is one of those "Duh" questions...] Is there a particular IP address you could enter instead of kat.cr [for example] in order to reach the site?

I believe not.

Even if there was, I would recommend against using it, for two reasons:
1) it's not entirely clear at this point who is in control of the servers--but it's sensible to assume it's the MAFIAA and you don't want to be connecting to them; and
2) the real value of any such site was in it's continual updating by millions of users. Even if the servers were OK, and a handful of people did manage to sneak somehow, there wouldn't be many of them, and they wouldn't be doing much, therefore there wouldn't be much point.

Seriously, I know that people are desperate, lots of them not just you, but desperate people are the ones who end up chasing rumours and ending up on scam sites. We've already had a post (which we have hidden) in this thread with a link to the "new official" KAT site. KAT is gone, for now at least. It might come back, I hope it does, but do yourself a favor and assume that it won't. If it does, you will be pleasantly surprised, if it doesn't at least you won't end up somewhere you wouldn't want to be.

[Philidor]

I checked out what looks like a legit site from genuine KAT fans, earlier today. But it only had roughly 30 of my uploads from a few months back, which means they did a running snapshot of a short span of time. I've posted nearly 10 times that much. I wouldn't suggest anybody download from such a site, much less register on any supposed KAT site. The brand's toxic right now. It's like handing your head over to the feds, or worse yet, a phishing expedition for accounts on your computer.

For what little my opinion's worth, dig in here. Put down roots. There's good stuff to be had, and I've already got quite a few people downloading my uploads. KAT will come back, but there's no reason not to share in both places. I know you've already heard it ad nauseum, but it seems to bear repeating, given what I've read: we're one large community. No, really. I'm not shitting you.

[TheEmpathicEar]

@Sid
Thx, this is what I thought was the case anyway...

EDIT: Oh, we need a "Thanks" button?

[Sid]

And is there any way to create private and public groups?

The forum software allows it and we have one public group ("The Void", which you can join/leave by clicking on User CP in the top left of this page, then Group Memberships in the bottom left of the next page) but we don't allow it generally.

Partly it is because we're egalitarian; partly it is because we're small.

What about the Void then, isn't that inconsistent with your own policy?  I hear you ask. Good question. We have the Void because you might think the language is coarse here but the Void is where it really gets real. Want to point out that this site is a stagnant cesspit and that I'm a motherfucking fascist hypocrite? Try that here, more than once, and you would end up silenced for a week. [Try it on KAT and you would end up silenced permanently.] But you can say it in the Void (and people would second your assessment).  But some people can't deal with that level of shit so you have to opt in.

If you (or anyone else) wants to make a case for a new group, start some threads on the topic in question and if they prove popular and lasting then we would at least consider it.

[Sid]

The theory was not that KAT expected not to have a legal target on their back by the entertainment industry, but that by complying with the DMCA, it would take legal pressure off their web host and domain name registrar. Then when pressured by a government or industry to disconnect service to KAT, the web host or domain name registrar could say... "They appear to be complying with your rules by removing content. We don't feel it's within our authority to disconnect service." In other words, it allows a little more stability between domain name changes. I'm wondering if this might be why KAT honored the DMCA. [color=red]I would love to hear a PIRATEBAY Mod/Admin chime in with their two cents on this theory, as TPB went through far more domain name changes that KAT did.

Interesting theory, the best I've heard. It's not entirely implausible but only Artem could tell you whether it's correct or not. [Neither I nor any of the other staff here are involved at that level. All of our admins/moderators are volunteers who have been drawn from the community.]

[Sid]

More integration of the site with the forum couldn't hurt. I used to think that the two places were meant to be apart, but when this place was taken down, I started using KAT reluctantly, and their community oriented philosophy made me change my mind.

i.e. first you thought one thing, and were entitled to that opinion.

Then you thought something else, and were just as entitled to that opinion.

We're still of the opinion that the less we know about everyone the better (for you; it actually makes our job harder).

I'm not saying heavy integration is wrong, simply that it is against our fundamental beliefs and it won't ever happen here.

And that's a good thing: sites should be different, so that different groups of people can find sites which appeal to their different tastes.