3 weeks after takedown, KickassTorrents makes a comeback
Screengrab from the website
Three weeks after the arrest of Artem Vaulin, the alleged mastermind behind the biggest torrent website on the internet – KickassTorrents, the website has made a comeback.
Ironically, the 30-year-old who made a living by allowing others to download copyrighted material for free, was tracked down by investigators with the help of his ‘legal’ purchases of movies and music on Apple’s iTunes. Vaulin was arrested in Poland on July 21.
According to US authorities, the site helped distribute over a billion dollars worth of pirated music, movies and softwares on the internet. Vaulin is facing multiple criminal charges, including copyright infringement and money laundering, which could potentially land him in prison for decades.
In the past, KickassTorrents has been taken down over a dozen times. But each time, it would crop back up with the help of a proxy domain name. However, following the founder’s arrest, U.S authorities took over all the proxy domain names and shut down the site’s global servers.
Surprisingly, that still wasn’t enough to the keep the site inactive. Less than a month from the site’s takedown, users have already found an alternative domain name that allows one to access the KickassTorrents website.
While the new site is an exact replica of the original, it does not mention anything about recently added files. In addition, the ability to download torrents is also restricted. However, the search functionality works as expected and users can still download content by using the magnet links.
Another torrent website, Torrentz.eu, that was shut last week, came back online this week.
