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IsoHunt Launches Unofficial KAT Mirror

Posted by msmash on from the breaking-bad dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Torrent site isoHunt appears to have unofficially resurrected KickassTorrents (also known as Kickass Torrents or just KAT) at kickasstorrents.website. It might look like the original KAT site, which went down yesterday after alleged founder Artem Vaulin was arrested, but upon closer inspection it's simply a basic mirror. The isoHunt team tells me the KAT mirror is hosting files from the last year to year-and-a-half. So no, not everything is available. Furthermore, there is no forum, no community, and no support. And, you shouldn't get too attached, the administrators warn. Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't necessarily condone piracy -- at least, in most cases.

66 comments

  1. Disclaimer: Anonymous Coward does condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I do, I do... Okay, not for you, you only leach!

  2. First piss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahah.

  3. I will soon mirror rnd 30 year old GeoCities sites by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 0

    So, someone mirrors an out of date torrent site (out of date by a year and a half??? and this is Slashdot frontpage news?

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  4. Slashdot should condone piracy by jdavidb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy.

    Why not? Everyone should condone "piracy." Piracy enriches our lives and our culture. Copying brings us more of the things we love. The only thing that shouldn't be condoned is using smear words like "piracy" to refer to a basic decent act of human behavior.

    --
    Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
    1. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You know what enriches our lives even more? High quality cultural work, which only gets created when people can live from it. If you take away copyright law, you take away the ability for content creators to live from their creations. Yes, maybe there will be some famous hyped youtube stars who can afford thanks to lots of patreon donors. But for most artists, a world without copyright would be totally disastrous. It is already now very easy for artists to fall into poverty, with copyright gone, it will be even easier.

      Piracy is illegal and it should stay that way. Its a smaller crime than say, stealing, but it is a crime.

    2. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      DRM is also economic warfare. Piracy and DRM balance each other out. The more aggressive one got, so did the other. The concept of IP is imaginary, and as a result, often abused. Nowadays, SaaS is the result and is something we're all going to regret in the long run

    3. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't disagree there.

    4. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      This line of reasoning is based on the false notion that the only way for people to be paid for creative works is through copyright. This is absolutely not the case and there are many examples of alternative business models that don't rely on copyright. MMORPG's can earn money because pirating the client game code doesn't get you an account or a server to play on. Almost anything that was made through crowd funding doesn't need copyright because all of the compensation is provided upfront before the work is even created. Downloading songs is no substitute for going to a live concert.
      Not to mention there are likely thousands of un-thought-of models, products, and creative services which have yet to be tried that would not require copyright.

    5. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Not all 'high quality cultural work' is created to sell as a source of income. There are some forms of media that cost too much to be produced any other way, like movies or TV series. But the cost of producing music is so low that many amateurs now produce material just as good as any professional purely as a hobby or for the recognition. Open-source software also thrives, and most of the developers for that are either enthusiasts, or working on behalf of corporate users of the software that need to improve it for their own purposes.

      It could even be argued that for-profit does not produce very good cultural works, because it leads to compromising artistic values in the interests of mass appeal. Hollywood might be taking in the money, but their films are all starting to look very similar now - and how many pop songs are love odes to an unnamed person?

    6. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just thought I'd point out the fact that you're a hopeless, autistic fucking doorknob.

    7. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why not? Everyone should condone "piracy." Piracy enriches our lives and our culture. Copying brings us more of the things we love. The only thing that shouldn't be condoned is using smear words like "piracy" to refer to a basic decent act of human behavior.

      So why not encourage GPL violators ("pirates" too)? Instead we seem to cheer whenever we find a GPL violator.

      Yes, violating the GPL is copyright infringement, aka piracy. (You don't have to agree to the GPL, but if you don't, it falls back to the "All Rights Reserved" copyright. So if you're distributing binaries without source you're violating basic copyright law).

      You really cannot have it both ways - if you want to encourage piracy, then you encourage people (and companies) to violate the GPL by extension.

    8. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      Yes they can.

      Their whole position is based on whatever benefits them at the moment. Nothing more.

    9. Re: Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sadly, this is how we got slugged with systemd :(

    10. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by bug1 · · Score: 1

      The GPL encourages copying.

      The only people who "pirate" GPL'ed works are people who dont want to share.

    11. Re: Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah! Elvis and all his other dead culture producing friends need to protect that steady revenue stream... Especially since that money flow go people who deserve it.

      It is also beautiful that some people (culture producers) dont have to work in order to survive. Write one song, release it, never ever work again. On top of that, some other dudes in suits will also benefit from it without adding value. Its magic!

      But the absolutely best thing must be software patents like one-click-shop. It is a gift of protection to humanity! Think of it, what would the world look like without it?!

      We are so lucky that this is codified in our laws.

    12. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Bring up that argument again when Star Wars starts making a profit. Do you realize that including all the movies, toys, books, tv shows, DVDs, etc... they haven't made a single penny in profits yet? Oh, and look into why Hollywood exists. They started on the east cost then moved to the west cost to avoid copyright laws. The entire media industry is built on copyright infringement. There was no such thing as copyright in Shakespeare's time. Do you really believe a single story should be able to support you and your grandchildren? Current copyright laws reduce high quality cultural work because an author only needs to create a story or two once per two generations. Do you really believe we should apply the same laws to other industries? So your house builder only needs to build two houses and then they get government benefits for the rest of their lives (copyright protections are government granted benefits)? Current day copyright is completely fucked up.

      Piracy is illegal and it should stay that way. Its a smaller crime than say, stealing, but it is a crime.

      No, copyright infringement is a larger crime than rape and its penalties are always worse than physically stealing the same content.

      With the companies so corrupt and the laws so out of whack, it's almost your civic duty to perform some civic disobedience.

    13. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by jdavidb · · Score: 1

      Copyleft is just a way to use copyright law to fight copyright. It's an awesome virus. If we lose copyright law, we still win, because then there is no need for copyleft any more.

      --
      Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
    14. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by kamaaina · · Score: 1

      Is there a model of copyright similar to kickstarter where I can produce something and charge for it, and when I make X amount of dollars for it it gets released as open source or creative commons.

      As the content author, it would cover costs and maybe give me some reward if it is worthy, it would give people willing to pay more a first crack at my content. Eventually it will get pirated anyway but if it ends up in creative commons or similar anyone can get it.

      The theory is that if my work is recognized as good, people willing to pay will get a head start on the story line, tech or knowledge, if it gets accepted then people initially interested can still take advantage of the product later on. Forces me the content maker to keep producing, but I do get some sort of reward that will keep me going by paying bills.

      If it is bad, I either improve my product, lower the price, or give up.

      Some stuff I was thinking of was like financial information, sports reporting, enhancements to products, product reviews. In a way, I think this is already done with bug bounty programs.

    15. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Did you even read the link? Apparently not, so I'll post it here for you, save you a click:

      "Publishers often refer to copying they don't approve of as âoepiracy.â In this way, they imply that it is ethically equivalent to attacking ships on the high seas, kidnapping and murdering the people on them. Based on such propaganda, they have procured laws in most of the world to forbid copying in most (or sometimes all) circumstances. (They are still pressuring to make these prohibitions more complete.)

      If you don't believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word âoepiracyâ to describe it. Neutral terms such as âoeunauthorized copyingâ (or âoeprohibited copyingâ for the situation where it is illegal) are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer to use a positive term such as âoesharing information with your neighbor.â

      A US judge, presiding over a trial for copyright infringement, recognized that âoepiracyâ and âoetheftâ are smear words."

      They are not saying that it's okay to infringe copyright on the GPL, they are saying that calling it "piracy" and "theft" are just smear words designed to elicit an emotional response by comparing a minor civil matter to kidnap and murder on the high seas.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    16. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know what enriches our lives even more? High quality cultural work, which only gets created when people can live from it.

      There is no requirement on quality for copyright. Until there is your argument falls flat.
      At the moment whatever content of quality there is is drowned out by overmarketed crap.

      The artificial scarcity that copyright creates also makes it so that I can't go out and buy high quality computer games from 10-20 years ago since the one with the distribution rights aren't interested anymore.

    17. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not? Everyone should condone "piracy." Piracy enriches our lives and our culture. Copying brings us more of the things we love. The only thing that shouldn't be condoned is using smear words like "piracy" to refer to a basic decent act of human behavior.

      So why not encourage GPL violators ("pirates" too)? Instead we seem to cheer whenever we find a GPL violator.

      Yes, violating the GPL is copyright infringement, aka piracy. (You don't have to agree to the GPL, but if you don't, it falls back to the "All Rights Reserved" copyright. So if you're distributing binaries without source you're violating basic copyright law).

      You really cannot have it both ways - if you want to encourage piracy, then you encourage people (and companies) to violate the GPL by extension.

      Good, I say get rid of both.
      In the community I come from we share without strings attached.
      The people who are comfortable with distributing their source does so. Those who aren't doesn't. Sometimes you want to clean up the code a bit before handing it over.
      Encounter someone who doesn't want to share the source? So? Take the original that he based his changes on. You aren't entitled to his changes just because he based it on open source and unlike what GPL zealots claim you can not take non-GPL open source and lock it in. The original source is still out there. The only way to lock it in is by claiming that you have copyright on the original.

      You say that I can't have both copyright and GPL, but I don't want either of them.

    18. Re:Slashdot should condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most people seem to be using patreon for that. Last major version is open source.

  5. Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "Slashdot doesn't condone piracy."

    Sure..wink, wink, msg rcvd

  6. Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How one sentence can illustrate the sad state of affairs.

    Don't forget to report you do not condone terrorist attacks at the next bombing, or racism when the next white cop shoots a black man.

    1. Re:Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't condone their not condoning it.

    2. Re:Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Current petroleum usage is leading us to a point of no return wrt climate change. Disclaimer: We do not condone pro nuclear groups.

      Just for you I am going to BBQ a Rib Eye tonight.

    3. Re:Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unlike the nasty stuff you came up with (where most people share the same opinion) people's position on piracy is non-obvious.

      It's normal, acceptable, and dare I say, expected for everyone to condone piracy of DRMed works. (i.e. if you financially support DRM instead of works that use it, then you are part of the problem.) But not everything is DRMed, so piracy in general is a gray area where there's a lot of division.

      So it seems reasonable for people to give their stand rather than relying on assumptions .. when asked. As for why anyone would care about Slashdot's position on piracy, geez, I don't know. But it's their site, so why not?

    4. Re:Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Mashiki · · Score: 1

      You forgot the next time a black man shoots a kid.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    5. Re: Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot is truly the site of evil. They want us all to die. To die.

    6. Re: Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We live in a frightening new world, and it's only prudent that we declare our loyalty to the Powers That Be before making any declaration. To do otherwise would be suicidal.

    7. Re: Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's how they be yo.

      Also, dey tewk err jerbZ!

  7. Thank you for supporting piracy Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With this article, piracy will continue forth!!!

  8. Slashdot doesn't condone piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy.

    But we clearly facilitate and encourage it.

  9. You can't ban the idea by Trachman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have never heard of Kickass Torrent in the past. Ever. Now I will be very curious just to see on what have they got.

    Now, this attempt to arrest an individual who is hosting a server which has url information reminds me very much of recent LEO work in Orlando Disney park, after a 2 year old was snatched by the alligators.

    It was surprising to see when two days after the accident the local police reported that they, the police officers, have "identified" the "guilty" alligator and "put him down". http://www.people.com/article/...

    You can't make this shit up.

    At some point then it dawns that all this fuss was about PD overtime.

    Same principles apply in KickAssTorrent website: police force imitate investigative work, they convince the judge that "data is in the computer" (remember the scene from Zoolander - The files is in the computer https://www.youtube.com/watch?... ),they imitate the value delivered, eventually they identify the guilty server (alligator) and take him down.

    The winners: police force getting a lot of overtime pay on a work which is not really dangerous nor this is a law enforcement.

    1. Re:You can't ban the idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      "just hosting url information" *AND* having ~20 million euro in accounts with his name on them.

      See also the TVShack guy. It was ignorable gray area until someone figured out how much money he was making, then he was public enemy number 1.

  10. We need a better solution. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    However mild the inconvenience, Government lead shutting down torrent sites and IPS blocking of torrent sites is becoming more prevalent. We need a genuine dark net where nothing is centralised and everything is distributed to work around this Government interference. It is our duty to leave our children a network without borders, with the resilience to withstand censorship and snooping.

    1. Re: We need a better solution. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bunghole bunghole fanny plop arse!

  11. Re:Disclaimer: Anonymous Coward does condone pirac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    !ftpz
    !sitez!
    !gimme
    !zeraw

  12. Re:I will soon mirror rnd 30 year old GeoCities si by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    No, you misread the summary. They are offering content FROM the last year and a half.

  13. Disclaimer: Slashdot doesn't condone piracy. by trojjan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is indeed a sad day when a site has to declare their affiliation before posting a story.
    What's next?
    This election is being contested by the most unpopular candidates ever. Disclaimer: We are pro democracy
    Current petroleum usage is leading us to a point of no return wrt climate change. Disclaimer: We do not condone pro nuclear groups.
    Malware rampant across all major operating systems. Disclaimer: We do not condemn any particular operating system.
    Black people are more likely to get killed in altercations with police. Disclaimer: We do not believe in race disparity.

    The sad thing is I can continue this for thousands of lines. Slashdot after proving you had been sold out, you really need to say you will be "politically correct" according to your overlords?

  14. It took ONE day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9412895&cid=52551453

  15. Maybe Slashdot should change the category/icon. by BitterOak · · Score: 2

    If Slashdot doesn't condone piracy, maybe Slashdot shouldn't categorize stories involving Torrent sites (which host both legal as well as infringing material) under the "piracy" category and show the skull and crossbones icon. It made sense for the original story since copyright charges were filed by the U.S. government and so there was a connection to copyright infringement, but simply alerting users to the availability of torrent sites should not be tagged under piracy, at least if Slashdot doesn't want to give the appearance of condoning piracy.

    --
    If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
  16. Why not setup a distributed block chain system? by ninthbit · · Score: 1

    Why isn't there an open API/source block chain system for this yet? Then you could just have an insane number of public portals or just host hour own private one. What am I missing here?

  17. You want to really score against The Man? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Don't host a mirror.

    Host a mirror with the entire database available as a torrent.

    Let everyone who wants to take the legal risk launch their own copycat site, with the KAT database as a launchpad so that they can go on to achieve even more. It took a few years to arrest one man in Poland - lets see them arrest twenty, spread over China, Russia, a server in a dorm room that no-one will claim ownership for, and wherever that Tor tunnel terminates.

    1. Re:You want to really score against The Man? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They want to replace KAT as the biggest, most popular torrent site by attracting ex-KAT users. That's their motivation.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:You want to really score against The Man? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better to just do all your torrenting entire within I2P and Tor+Onioncat.
      Nobody can stop you there without banning the free speech nature of those networks.
      Which is IMPOSSIBLE without canceling the First Amendment.
      Because those networks are fully encrypted.
      They can't tell if you're sharing pics of your cat,
      or the latest Britney Spears album.

  18. Re:I will soon mirror rnd 30 year old GeoCities si by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, it is very important and useful information.

  19. 2 points for them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't they also do this when TPB went down hard?

  20. Re:I will soon mirror rnd 30 year old GeoCities si by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Behold the wonder of Geocities!

  21. Aaaghhh, my eyes! by blibbo · · Score: 1

    The first WTF was the disclaimer itself, but OK, if you must. Buy then, not one but two sets of weasel words?!!

    "Necessarily", "in most cases". Choose one and leave it at that.

    I'm not necessarily an old pregnant black Kenyan woman most of the time.

    In fact, today I'm a young, white, male, New Zealander.

  22. not with your Tor browser by swell · · Score: 1

    Like many other torrent sites, your Tor browser will hit you with a Captcha. In most cases, every page will open with a new Captcha until you are really angry. But even then the torture will continue until you give up or are willing to share your identity with a non-Tor browser. You'd think that torrent sites would expect users to be on Tor -- so why antagonize them?

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
  23. Checkout http://kat.am - fast & working proxy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Checkout http://kat.am - fast & working proxy with all latest torrents. Long live Kickass Torrents

  24. Checkout http://kat.am - fast & working proxy. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Checkout http://kat.am [kat.am] - fast & working proxy with all latest torrents. Long live Kickass Torrents

  25. That's nice,,,,,, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now I have to go home and pirate a book with my eyes.

  26. /. should encourage sharing by jbn-o · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So why not encourage GPL violators ("pirates" too)? Instead we seem to cheer whenever we find a GPL violator.

    First, we should understand what the propagandistic term "piracy" really means and understand that meaning as separate from sharing—a friendly, neighborly thing to do. As the GNU Project points out in it's list of terms to avoid on "theft": "In general, laws don't define right and wrong. Laws, at their best, attempt to implement justice. If the laws (the implementation) don't fit our ideas of right and wrong (the spec), the laws are what should change. A US judge, presiding over a trial for copyright infringement, recognized that "piracy" and "theft" are smear-words.". This difference gets to the heart of the problem in your point—you're conflating the legal with the ethical and then trying to get others to view all sharing as copyright infringement and all copyright infringement as equivalent because the law frames things in that way.

    We should recognize that the terms of the licenses involved between, say, the GNU General Public License (GPL) and a typical Hollywood movie, are radically different when it comes to doing what friends do: share. One can and should share copies of GPL'd programs. It's easy to do, the GPL is easy to comply with simply by also sharing a copy of the complete corresponding source code of the program at the same time as one shares the binary. By contrast, other famously shared copyrighted items (such as most Hollywood movies) aren't legal to share even if done non-commercially and verbatim. So doing the thing that comes naturally with friends, non-commercial and verbatim sharing, is likely not allowed by that movie's license.

    Since you mention the GPL, a free software license written by Richard Stallman, this is somewhat akin to what Stallman describes in his talks about the freedoms of free software specifically freedom #2: the freedom to help your neighbour. That's the freedom to make copies and distribute them to others, when you wish. This comes from a 2006-03-09 talk and you can see how the consideration here is akin to the dilemma one faces should a friend ask for a copy of a Hollywood movie:

    Freedom two is essential on fundamental ethical grounds, so that you can live an upright, ethical life as a member of your community. If you use a program that does not give you freedom number two, you're in danger of falling at any moment into a moral dilemma. When your friend says "that's a nice program, could I have a copy?" At that moment, you will have to choose between two evils. One evil is: give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program. The other evil is: deny your friend a copy and comply with the licence of the program.

    Once you are in that situation, you should choose the lesser evil. The lesser evil is to give your friend a copy and violate the licence of the program.

    [laughter]

    Now, why is that the lesser evil? The reason is that we can assume that your friend has treated you well and has been a good person and deserves your cooperation. The reason we can assume this is that in the other case, if a nasty person you don't really like asked you for help, of course you can say "Why should I help you?" So that's an easy case. The hard case is the case where that person has been a good person to you and other people and you would want to help him normally.

    Whereas, the developer of the program has deliberately attacked the social solidarity of your community. Deliberately tried to separate you from everyone else in the World. So if you can't help doing wrong in some direction or other, better to aim the wrong at somebody who deserves it, who has done something wrong, rather than at somebody who hasn't done anything wrong.

    Howe

    --
    Digital Citizen
  27. Torrent sites need RSS by evilviper · · Score: 1

    KAT's big advantage was its ability to turn any page into an RSS feed. Any combination of search terms and categories you want, you could get an RSS feed of it, including the number of seeders/leechers, the magnet link. torcache.net link (that site seems to be down as well), user votes up/down, comments, etc.

    I can't emphasize enough just how substantially time-saving that can be. With a small script you can subscribe to ANYTHING and all the new stuff just magically shows up as soon as it is available. Even if you stop short of that kind of integration, it still helps greatly not to have to open a link to a website to grab the magnet link of each torrent...

    Other torrent sites do RSS, but only some fraction of that.

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  28. .onion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thought KAT had an hidden service/location site, too? Has that been affected?

    1. Re:.onion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last I checked it was still there:

      lsuzvpko6w6hzpnn.onion

    2. Re:.onion by apraetor · · Score: 1

      Then you last checked sometime before the arrest, because the server has been inaccessible since then.

  29. IRC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are better ways to download games, movies and music. XDCC chans on IRC etc.