Slashdot Mirror
Kickass Torrents' KAT.ph Domain Seized By Philippine Authorities
hypnosec writes "Kickass Torrents hasn't been accessible since sometime yesterday, and now it has been confirmed that the domain name of the torrent website has been seized by Philippine authorities. Local record labels and the Philippine Association of the Recording Industry said that the torrent site was doing 'irreparable damages' to the music industry and following a formal complaint the authorities resorted to seizure of the main domain name. The site hasn't given up, and is operating as usual under a new domain name. The government of the Philippines has confirmed that the domain name has been seized based on formal complaints and copyright grounds."
> Any site that has a link taken away from it by any authority should be linked to by everyone in retaliation for the censorship. Do you equal taking down a site that is an obvious ali baba cave of illegal material with censorship? Please don't give me the excuse that, if you look long and hard enough you may find a handful of legal torrents on the site.
> The current system clearly does not provide a net public benefit, so there is no reason to respect those laws Well, "dura lex set lex" - should you ever be so unlucky to be fined for downloading say the new Iron Man movie, then I suggest that you find a stronger legal defense than that. There is something to be said for your statement "the current system clearly does not provide a net public benefit", but simply freeloading the result of someone's hard work because you can, is not the answer either. I find it unethical. I don't find it wrong to pay a reasonable price for music, movies or books that interest me. And for those that I don't want to pay the price for, well then I don't download them.
You wont be able to find any illegal content hosted by the site no matter how long and hard you look, what you will find however are .torrent files and magnet links. Big difference but not one I'd expect you to be willing to accept.
There's no practical difference. You clicky the linky at KickAssTorrents website, warez flows to your computer. My point being, the torrent files and magnet links are the only way to access the illegal content behind them after all. They are essentially a complete description, a virtualization of the files. It's silly to say that a torrent site "does not host the files" because they still make the sharing possible in first place.
See what I did there?
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
Yes, I agree that sharing information is generally a good thing. However it is not like most books or music or movies are not available or priced out of range. I have no problem with paying a reasonable sum for my entertainment, rewarding the creators. Re: freeloading... it is just a word, you get my gist.