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Feds Seize KickassTorrents Domains and Arrest Owner In Poland (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the justice-will-prevail dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Federal authorities announced on Wednesday the arrest of the alleged mastermind of KickassTorrents (KAT), the world's largest BitTorrent distribution site. As of this writing, the site is still up. Prosecutors have formally charged Artem Vaulin, 30, of Ukraine, with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Like The Pirate Bay, KAT does not host individual infringing files but rather provides links to .torrent and .magnet files so that users can download unauthorized copies of TV shows, movies, and more from various BitTorrent users. According to a Department of Justice press release sent to Ars Technica, Vaulin was arrested on Wednesday in Poland. The DOJ will shortly seek his extradition to the United States. "Vaulin is charged with running today's most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials," Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in the statement. "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." KickassTorrents added a dark web address last month to make it easier for users to bypass blockades installed by ISPs.

47 of 302 comments (clear)

  1. prosecuted for HTML by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So if I Google kickass torrents and Google returns a link to their site, shouldn't Google be prosecuted as an accessory?

    See how fucking stupid these charges are?

    I guess the DOJ needs something to distract everyone from the whole letting Clinton commit treason thing.

    1. Re:prosecuted for HTML by Anomalyst · · Score: 2

      especially the cake.

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    2. Re:prosecuted for HTML by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Trump is a loose canon.

      Are you deacon us around?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:prosecuted for HTML by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Trump is a loose canon.

      Are you sure he's not a loose Nikon?

    4. Re:prosecuted for HTML by Hylandr · · Score: 2

      Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Hilary hired Trump to be the distraction.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  2. Some thoughts by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We just saw an article explaining how China had just outlawed ad-blockers.

    Does this mean China can accuse the maker of ad-blocking software with a major crime, and require that person to be extradited to China for trial?

    1. Re: Some thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      For trial? Hahahahaha

    2. Re:Some thoughts by BitterOak · · Score: 4, Informative

      We just saw an article explaining how China had just outlawed ad-blockers.

      Does this mean China can accuse the maker of ad-blocking software with a major crime, and require that person to be extradited to China for trial?

      Only if he's arrested in another country where ad blockers are illegal. Presumably aiding and abetting copyright infringement is illegal in Poland as well as in the United States.

      --
      If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
    3. Re:Some thoughts by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's hard to extradite someone from somewhere what they have done it not a crime

      That's probably why the DOJ is slapping on "conspiracy to commit money laundering" because a lot of countries have treaties to combat money laundering.
      They won't have to argue Artem has committed a crime that Poland recognises in relation to copyright infringement.

    4. Re:Some thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ennetcom springs to mind, the Dutch encrypted phone the Dutch police raided to shut it down. That had a 'money-laundering' charge tacked onto it. But the Dutch press reported that the money-laundering was because criminals were reselling the phones to other criminals, allegedly to clean their drug money. Except how can it be cleaned if they're selling to other criminals? The other criminals money must also be tainted too! It made batshit sense.

      The core two complaints: a fake money laundering charge (which would not be reason to close the phone company), and that the owner had an unregistered gun (which would not be reason to close the phone company), neither of them justified seizing the servers for what the police admit isn't a crime.

      I wonder now if that fake money laundering charge is used to justify the cross border seizure of the servers.

    5. Re:Some thoughts by lrichardson · · Score: 2

      "Dual criminality" used to be pretty important ... of course, that got thrown out the window in the EU when they introduced the EAW (European Arrest Warrant).

      Since its introduction, abuses of the EAW have been well documented. Poland and Greece have been using them as means of simply extorting money from tourists. e.g. You claim you didn't steal that five euro towel when you visited their country, but the staff swore the towel was missing. A criminal charge was lodged, and an EAW granted. You can either fork over a few hundred Euro, or head back to the country, and try and fight the charge in the (obviously corrupt) courts there.

      Evidence? What, some countries require more than "An unnamed informant told us the suspect was seen near the crime"? Among other things, this is why the US kind of has a low percentage of extradition requests honoured. Other countries tend to view forced confessions and anonymous sources - and, increasingly, sworn US LE Officer testimony - as insufficient grounds.

      Yep, the US does its best to game the system, to the benefit of the corporations running the place. That's also why it should properly be referred to as 'The Legal System', NOT 'The Justice System'

    6. Re:Some thoughts by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      So why can't they arrest the scam callers impersonating the IRS and demanding money? Fraud is illegal in most countries.

      Telcos in those special countries where all the fraud comes from are complicit, they make it possible for people to do that without reporting their identities.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Warning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Warning. Last time the Feds seized a site (some child porn site on TOR) they kept hosting it themselves for a month with malware on it. Accessing KAT right now would be foolish.

    1. Re:Warning by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Warning. Last time the Feds seized a site (some child porn site on TOR)

      The irony here is they can extradite someone who links to things but not an actual child rapist such as Roman Polanski who is evading US justice in Poland. That's a pretty huge double standard considering the "think of the children" excuse used for internet crackdowns.

    2. Re:Warning by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Funny

      This is KAT we're talking about. Of course there's malware on it.

      Don't surf the internet without a condom. Whether you invite the FBI over for a threesome is irrelevant.

    3. Re:Warning by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 2

      As if anyone really has control over what their browser does... All you can do is turn off javascript and flash and hope your browser isn't attacked via any of the other many security vulnerabilities left over.

      Unless you are running your actual browser in a sandboxed VM, you are still at the mercy of the ability of a team of humans to not make any mistakes.

    4. Re:Warning by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 2

      So I say "You can't have X unless you do Y", and you say "Your argument is dead, you can have X if you do Y"

  4. Justice? by roman_mir · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Vaulin is charged with running today's most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials," Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in the statement. "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."

    - is this what passes for 'justice' today?

    I guess he, who has the most guns defines what justice is. Justice is the opposite of what this Orwellian prick says. Justice is in non initiation of violence by any government. Justice is in equal treatment of individuals by law regardless of their circumstances. Using government oppression to enforce copyright has nothing to do with justice.

    Government may have a function, that function being enforcing contract law and dealing with fraud. That is all that any government should ever have any power to do. Everything else is oppression, not justice.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
    1. Re:Justice? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "...His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice."

      While ransomware distributors prey on us at will, because the priority is on protecting Hollywood from copyright violators.

    2. Re: Justice? by jonwil · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The problem is that most of the malware out there comes from countries like Russia that dont have an extradition treaty with the US, that have one but where the treaty doesn't allow extradition of malware authors or that are powerful enough that the US cant make them bend over in the way they can for smaller countries like Poland.

    3. Re: Justice? by dbIII · · Score: 2

      it is lot more complex situation than just crying 'child rapist' and putting him in same box as all similar criminals

      Yes I get it - he's a Hollywood aristocrat and she's just common muck whored out by her mother. George Washington fought hard to stop that sort of attitude but here you are as if it never happened. The Hollywood PR machine said the little girl liked it but the transcript of the trial said she was injured and that's why it came to the attention of the police in the first place.

    4. Re: Justice? by ultranova · · Score: 2

      Correct, it's all about you defending your own property

      Please explain what makes some land your property? Because you say so? Why should anyone else care about that? Because you'll kill them if they don't?

      Everybody defending their own property, some people doing it on their own, some hiring companies to do it for them.

      So basically, whoever has the most resources can hire the largest private army to capture - excuse me, "defend his claim to" - more? Because, in the absence of a government, what's stopping them?

      Also, I guess those unlucky enough to not own - or be able to afford a private army to protect - any land will starve to death, unless the new nobility are generous enough to allow them to voluntarily enter a slavery contract with them.

      I do not see any government as legitimate at all, just for the record here.

      No, you want to have all the benefits of a lawful society without carrying any of the duties, which is what taxation is ultimately about.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  5. Update by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 3, Informative

    As of this writing, KAT is down, both through conventional DNS and through their onion address.

    1. Re:Update by evilviper · · Score: 4, Informative

      As of this writing, KAT is down, both through conventional DNS and through their onion address.

      The main sites are down, but that doesn't surprise me, as they often have capacity problems and can be hard to reach for several hours, nearly every day.

      Still reachable domains are;

      - http://kickasstorrents.ee/
      - http://kickasstorrentsan.com/
      - http://kickasstorrents.cr/
      - http://kickass-torrents.to/

      And since I'm here, a few alternatives:

      - https://eztv.ag/showlist/name/
      - https://thepiratebay.org/
      - https://isohunt.to/torrents/

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    2. Re:Update by TypoNAM · · Score: 3, Informative

      Pretty sure eztv was compromised and none of 'eztv' domains are real. Same goes for all those supposedly KAT domains you've listed. Why are you linking to fake copies of the sites?

      --
      This space is not for rent.
    3. Re:Update by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Arrests for what?

      For looking at a page that offers magnet links that you might or might not access?

    4. Re:Update by Hylandr · · Score: 2

      You all may well be correct, but in America it's not who's right or wrong but who can afford the lawyers to prove their point.

      He who has the biggest lawyer wins.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  6. Prosecuted for posting about searching for torrent by ZipK · · Score: 5, Funny

    So if I Google kickass torrents and Google returns a link to their site, shouldn't Google be prosecuted as an accessory?

    If you post to /. about the idea of using Google to search for Kickass Torrents, shouldn't you and /. both be prosecuted as accessories?

  7. Re:Prosecuted for posting about searching for torr by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you post to /. about the idea of using Google to search for Kickass Torrents, shouldn't you and /. both be prosecuted as accessories?

    If you quote a post about the idea of using Google search for Kickass Torrents shouldn't you be prosecuted?

  8. Re: Prosecuted for posting about searching for tor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    just reading this makes us all guilty

  9. Torrent Sites? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Funny

    People still use those? Google is still the fastest and best:

    filetype:torrent [your query]

    1. Re:Torrent Sites? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      filetype:magnet is even better, as Google usually supplies an actual working magnet URL that you can use to directly start your download. Exactly the same as Kickass Torrents.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  10. Tails 1.4.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They did it because it hosted the only version of uncompromised Tails.

    There are many other torrent sites. Stupid fuckers. As you take away, your shit is taken away harder.

    1. Re:Tails 1.4.1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      https://www.sendspace.com/file/w35ddl

      Here is the actual real sig and real sha and real torrent that had been hosted on kat.cr. It is in that 7z. Unzip it with peazip or whatever you want. That torrent was placed on kat.cr by some place called TNTVILLAGE or something like that. It is a very high traffic forum I think it was in Spanish. The .iso of Tails is multilanguage. Nothing different from the original. It's sig and sha matched the ones from the originally downloaded one I have from when 1.4.1 was distributed originally. It is the only place i've seen it hosted so get this and share it.

      The government doesn't give a fuck if you watch a movie or listen to TV unless they are paid to care. They aren't. It was because that version of Tails is Ed Snowden's. After that, the CIA fucked it up.

      This was in the comments of the kat.cr multi-language TNTVILLAGE torrent as well. It remained seeded, it probably still is. I saved the torrent from there because I know for a fact it is the last OK version of Tails.

      As if the US government is the actual international movie and music police. Get fucking fucked. America is broke. Bankrupt. They spend time and tax payer money to reel in torrents give me a break. Poof, theres another one.

  11. Poland? by boudie2 · · Score: 2

    That does it, I'm not buying anything more from Poland!

  12. ROFL by shaitand · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice."

    What does justice have to do with it?

  13. Treason? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    apparently, you have no idea what how treason is defined by the US Constitution. let me help...

    US Constitution, Article 3, Section 3

    "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."

    1. Re:Treason? by quenda · · Score: 3, Interesting

      apparently, you have no idea what how treason is defined by the US Constitution.

      Of course, that document was written by a bunch of guys who had just willingly committed treason, justified or not, against their former country and king ('a man do levy war against the king in his realm') by so they should know exactly what they were talking about.

    2. Re: Treason? by avatar+avatar · · Score: 2

      Not if it's rough, apparently.

  14. We are shameful by fred911 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice."

    No, what his arrest demonstrates is how low we have become allowing Hollywood to buy laws, how little understanding judges and juries have of technology, and how weak Poland is permitting us to fuck with a sovereign citizen.

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    1. Re:We are shameful by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

      If you think that Poland bowed down before USA in this case, you are mistaken. They happily assisted. Poland has been sucking American dick for decades. Even though they are, for some reason, a member of the EU, they are far more closely allied to the US.

      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  15. Whew! by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 3, Funny

    So glad they captured this foreign copyright infringer -- making the World a *much* safer place for everyone. Now maybe the Feds can finally spend some time on this "people keep killing other people" thing that seems to be going on here in the US and, I hear, other countries.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Whew! by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 2

      But just think what resources will now be available to the Feds with the tax revenue coming in because the copyright holders will be getting their $1B a year that was being stolen because of KAT. /s

  16. His fatal mistake by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 2

    Not being a banker or broker; that would have rendered him impervious to the rule of law.

    1. Re:His fatal mistake by walterbyrd · · Score: 2

      Or if he was presidential candidate. Especially one who was secretary of state, and once married to the president.

  17. Re:He made millions by Gilgaron · · Score: 2

    I suppose he ought to have pulled a Youtube and shared the ad revenue with the copyright holders...

  18. Crowd sourced verification by DarthVain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    KAT was never about finding torrents, as you say, it isn't hard by various methods. The real value of KAT was the community. The KAT community would comment and rate torrents. As you're probably aware, there are a lot of bad torrents, and simply fake ones generated by the various copyright associations. The only thing KAT really did was enable a large group of people to crowd source the verification of torrents enabling people to find good ones. Otherwise yes you can most easily find a "torrent" you are looking for, but is it any good, or is it a fake.

    However, none of this has anything to do with technology, so any site can do it, it just helps to be a popular one (i.e. a larger community to manually verify torrents). Should KAT go away, people will just move to a different one, and things continue as before. There will likely be some disruption, but it will only really be a temporary win for the copyright associations. They of course will simply use this is justification of their existence to continue to leech money from the various media industries (hence the "BILLION" dollar figure which is complete BS, as the simplistic example goes the car thief wasn't going to buy the car if he hadn't stolen it)... Rinse, repeat, etc...