Slashdot Mirror
Movie Studios 'Take Down' Popular KAT Mirror
Following the shut down of KickassTorrents website -- after its alleged owner was arrested, Hollywood studios are playing the game of cat and mouse with pirates to put an absolute end to KickassTorrents. An anonymous reader writes: One of the most popular KAT mirrors has had its domain name taken down following pressure from the major Hollywood studios. The Armenian .AM registry was quick to disable the KAT.am domain, after it received a stark warning from the Motion Picture Association, representing Hollywood's major studios. This notice requires you to immediately (within 24 hours) take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement. All opportunities provided by the website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the entertainment content should be disabled permanently," MPA's email reads.As TorrentFreak reports, the takedown of kat.am domain isn't the end of the website. The publication spoke to the operator of the website, and learned that they were "making continuous" attempts to bring the website back -- utilizing the channels available. Kat.am is down already, but kickass.cd and kickass.mx mirros have since cropped up. Slashdot understands that Kickass torrent community is now back in action again, on a whole new domain.
If you cut down one head, two will grow back.
Thinking they can take down links to torrents is the height of hubris.
n/t
Have gnu, will travel.
It's a futile battle.
Can't just replace kat.cr with kickass.cd, the RSS feed facility is badly broken.
RSS feeds seems to work at the top-level categories, but you can't turn your search results into an RSS feed anymore... Still got the RSS icon at the top of the page and in the META so your browser bar shows it. But both just show the same old HTML page instead of an RSS page:
e.g. http://kickass.cd/usearch/test...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Slashdot does not promote piracy.
Slashdot promotes A.I.-generated, Raspberry Pi beowulf cluster cloud-powered 3D-printed drones ads and pointless user-generated posts like this one.
son: what ever happened to the time when we owned a movie studio?
grandfather: oh it was a magical time. we hired actors and writers and musicians. we had neat ideas and we tried our best at first to make the greatest films we could think of with the best actors. Cagney and Gable and Poitier and Ball...they were a wonder to behold.
son: and then? did they all go away? what happened?
father: we spent 30 years playing whack-a-mole with Scandinavian and Armenian web sites that took pocket change to run but millions to shut down. We cranked out 15 ghost busters and another 25 twilight movies. in the end, I think the Fast and the Furious 185 was about a talking irish cat? i cant remember. mother: everyone gather round! the torrents finished and we can finally watch Taken 56. this is the one where they take his altoids and hes even madder!
Good people go to bed earlier.
... after it received a stark warning from the Motion Picture Association, representing Hollywood's major studios.
Take it down or Michael Bay will make a movie about you.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Don't you mean "cat and mouse"?
Oh, right. Got it.
Slashdot promotes virtual hot grits of cows using apps to display A.I.-generated, Raspberry Pi beowulf cluster cloud-powered 3D-printed drones ads and pointless user-generated posts like this one.
Seems my adblocker is working. It's on "filter every crap that has been displayed too many times already and is likely to not be interesting".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I guess it's the only way to avoid invasion though.
Still sucks to see Hollywood dictating its demands to the whole world.
And it still sucks to have the ISP as our singular connection to the internet. Where's our redundancy?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"The more you tighten your grip, MPAA , the more torrents will slip through your fingers."
Save the shtick for the publishers and distributors. I mean, if you care so much for the artists.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
But no Hot Grits Appy Apps ??? (grin)
You can thank the torrents for those low prices. Hollywood doesn't have a choice but to compete. The free market works!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
14/14 or bust. Copyright is badly broken. Do you know what happens to laws that people don't respect? They ignore them. The content holders have no one but themselves to blame.
ISPs sell you a high speed connection.
High speed connection TO WHAT?!
Hey Comcast. Why do I need 108mbit BASE TIER internet speed? Really fast emailz? Oh, I should upgrade my service to the next tier? So I can get those emailz even fast4r??!!
"Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
If they put their money into making really good movies, instead of spending it playing whack-a-mole with torrent sites, maybe people would go to the movies again. The current method of remaking everything with ethnically diverse cast members is boring, as was the previous method of using 3 minutes of poorly written dialog masquerading as plot between CGI content segments.
I'd like your opinion on the grey area.
example's arranged from most to least grey
Using software to fake having a disk so you can buy a digital copy for $1 to $2.
Paying for netflix and then paying extra for a vpn so you can watch movies from other regions.
Buying digital HD codes off of people.
Using amazon prime's no rush shipping to get free movies.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
During the week you can have my car if you need it, I only use it on the weekends, just return it as you took it, if it's not too much of a hassle.
In a blaze of blue and red flashing lights, sirens and squealing tires?
You got it, buddy!
Well, if artists (especially musicians) are not deserving of a dollar, due to not being deprived of physical objects...
Factory workers ...none of these people should be paid. They should just do it for free, and get a day job. Or they should make money from selling t-shirts.
Sysadmins
Lawyers
Taxi drivers
Truck drivers
Surgeons
Teachers
Most scientists
Ship captains and crew
Astronauts
Shop assistants
Burger flippers
Waiters
Office staff
Web designers
Programmers
OMG! Don't forget about the ponies!
I wanted to pay for Game of Thrones. I really wanted. I have plenty of money and I like the show, why not? And I wanted to watch it on Sunday night rather than wait for the torrents to be available on Monday morning.
So I looked it up online, it turns out that HBO does stream it, for 15 dollars a month. A bit expensive for a single series, but whatever. I have already watched too much of it for free anyway. Ok, do they stream it live? Yep, but on US time. In the UK they show it Monday night. Ugh. So paying for it won't even let me watch it on Sunday night. Whatever, at least it will be more convenient than downloading torrents from KAT or Pirate Bay, that are constantly being DDOS'ed. So, how do I sign up? I need to use a smartphone. Weird stuff. Why I smartphone? I'm not going to watch Game of Thrones on my phone, I'm going to watch it on my computer. Ok, so they allow me to watch it on my computer after I sign up through the phone. Sigh. Ok, to Google Play, and, where is it? No HBO app. Oh, it's US only. So go fuck yourself, HBO. Back to KAT.
And this is why torrent sites will never disappear. Even people that can and want to pay for the content are forced to torrent it. Even if they manage to kill KAT, there will be other sites where I will watch the next season.
entropy happens
The same time kat.cr got taken down, solarmove.is is down too. I think the same people / servers were hosting both. Curious if anyone knows?
Am I right saying that torrent indexing is what is always get shut down? Is there a way to decentralize that with... I don't know, elastic search may be... Kind of having a distributed database that anyone could join and build their front-end from that?
I must be missing something huge, because it seems to me that KAT really wasn't doing anything illegal, to the extent that they were hosting torrent files, not actually illegally hosting copyrighted content (like MegaUpload was.) Torrent files are really only informational files containing metadata and links to tracker sites--none of which is in-and-of-itself illegally hosting copyrighted material.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
And yet here you are...
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
... when I was brought aboard. The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
Imagine all the people...
The problem is they're not only competing with "free", they're competing with "convenient". Where can I buy a blu-ray without 15 minutes of bullshit before the movie?
That said, there's not a whole hell of a lot being produced today that's even worth the time to torrent. So I don't.
If something really catches my interest I'll gather a few friends (or my wife if I can convince her to set foot in a theater that night) and go see it on the big screen. If it's something I didn't mind dicking around buying tickets, waiting in line and overpaying for popcorn and flat soda, and sitting through a half hour of previews, ads, and inane bullshit in order to see, I'll probably buy the blu-ray if I think I might want to see it again. I own two blu-ray discs. What's that tell you?
Honestly, I'd probably own more, but there's not really much they put out that I still want to see a 2nd or 3rd time after 15 minutes of previews for shit I don't care about. It's not even price at this point, it's time. I can bill more in the time I waste waiting for the damn movie to start than I paid for the damn movie and that is a problem.
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
I think you made your point.
But, not going to movies does not mean that you have download torrents.
You can rent movies from Amazon, or Google Play, or there is always Redbox.
If you wait six months after a movie is released, you can watch at home for practically nothing.
And if this whole NSA thing has taught us anything, it is that meta-data is much different than data, right?
Then maybe our government will do something about taking down sites that facilitate online recruitment and radicalization instead of chasing after college students uploading ripped movies. Because Hollywood donors have much more pool with congress people than victims of terrorist attacks.
Netflix at 1080p is ~12mbit stream.
In a world where no one does that horrible icky filesharing stuff, why is BASE TIER residential Comcast internet 108mbit in my market?
"Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
How about a periodic fee to be allowed to download copyrighted material? The system would be run by the national societies ASCAP/SACEM etc. It would be much cheaper for old stuff. The fee would also depend on the category (music, movies, software, etc) and might be subject to a volume limit. It would then be redistributed to the authors using the download statistics. Many would still cheat of course but not all (see the working though overpriced itunes, amazon, etc.) and I am inclined to think that the system could overall work satisfactorily. IMHO at least worth a try.
I’m sure many download things they never get time to watch, listen to or run, just because the occasion is there. They wouldn’t do it if they were sure to have access at any time provided they pay a fee.
I’m sure many download things they never get time to watch, listen to or run, just because the occasion is there.
I know I did back when I was so broke that $20 for a DVD was just not in the budget. Yes, I get it, I had the $600 computer to download shit on; except that I didn't buy that $600 computer, it was a gift, and I'd have had to have bought a DVD player and TV, neither of which fit into a budget that already doesn't have $20 of leeway, if I didn't have the computer. In fact, I'm almost certain I still have much of that content burned to discs somewhere, long forgotten and still likely to never be viewed. I don't count as lost sales for any of it, because I never had the budget to potentially count as a sale when I downloaded it, and I have no interest in the content today. If I do have interest in any of that content at some point in the future, I'll go snag the blu-ray (or whatever format is current at that time) so I'm not stuck with the sub-DVD-quality shit I downloaded in my teen years. That is to say, I'm still a potential sale for each and every piece of media I downloaded all those years ago and, in fact, have converted quite a few sales in the form of DVD purchases once my budget expanded a bit.
Yes, some people who could pay do pirate. Hell, even some of them would pay if they couldn't pirate. But, here's the thing: you can't count people who can't pay as lost sales because you can't squeeze money out of them that they don't have. And you can't count people who would never pay as lost sales because even if their only option was to buy, they wouldn't; they would simply go without. Those are two classes of people you're just never going to get a cent from, period, and they need to be ignored; they're not your customers and they're not worth your time. This applies to any industry, by the way, not just those governed by copyright.
The only potential for growth is people who would give you money but aren't, and targeting them directly is often not the wisest move. Especially in the case of the entertainment industry, adding all these warnings and DRM restrictions to legitimately purchased media. That shit only affects your paying customers, whose asses you should be kissing royally. And pursuing violators? If your profits are truly and really threatened by them, sure; if they're selling your product out from under you and they actually have the means, as a result of that, to pay out more than it will cost to pursue them, go for it. But spending more than you can reasonably recover to sue Joe Bloggs for sharing a copy of an album or movie? That just drives prices up and profits down; it hurts everybody, the person or entity being sued, the studio that won't recover the money from that lawsuit, and the paying customers who suffer higher prices as a result.
Concentrate on kissing the asses of your customers, make them exceedingly happy to have forked over their hard-earned money in your direction. This means no onerous warnings (that don't apply to them, as they bought the damn thing) on the media they've legally purchased, no draconian restrictions that prevent them from using the media for whatever noncommercial purpose they see fit, no forced content (ads, previews, and other preroll shit -- go ahead and include them as extras, but don't make me watch them), and, you know what? People will buy it in droves.
Will the lack of warnings increase the incidence of piracy? No, pirates don't see that shit anyway. Will the lack of DRM increase the incidence of piracy? Fuck no, DRM is usually broken before the media is officially released anyway. Will profits decline if you can't charge as much for ads because they're not a forced pre-roll? Maybe; per-unit margins will be slimmer, but I'm betting it would be made up for in volume as more people bother to buy the shit in the
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
They were charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, copyright infringement, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Conspiracy means they had to intentionally help others on a large scale to commit a crime or crimes. One could say, hey, it's all just 1s and 0s... but, the truth is that they acted in a large scale (globally) to intentionally help others pirate copyrighted materials. It's not so much the torrent or magnet links... it's the business model they created that shuttled funds through various dummy corps, countries, and bank accounts (money laundering) and that it was built on the back of supporting international copyright infringement.
Not sayin' I approve or disapprove... just... legally, KAT made the mistake of crossing into USA jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of various countries with similar laws, treaties with the USA, and extradition treaties with the USA. Still.... innocent until proven guilty & a jury might not convict on the conspiracy charges - though I doubt it. If I were him, I'd take a deal and plead to the lesser charges.
Namecoin decentralized DNS:
https://github.com/namecoin/wiki/blob/master/HowToBrowseBitDomainsAdvanced.mediawiki
The Gargoyle router firmware supports Namecoin DNS resolution:
https://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2120
OpenNIC supports Namecoin DNS resolution:
https://www.opennicproject.org/configure-your-dns/how-to-change-dns-servers-in-dd-wrt/
Many people today think that big corporations are evil. I rather think some of their decision making people aren’t necessarily very brilliant and knowledgeable.
And yes, those who don’t or can’t pay hopefully will one day. Hollywood, ASCAP etc. shouldn’t make them enemies.
I did, didn't I? Perhaps if they just stopped turning the screws on us, we'd be happy with the same old business model. :)