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US Unveils Charges Against KickassTorrents, Names Two More Defendants (arstechnica.com)
A total of three men are said to be operators of file-sharing site KickassTorrents (KAT), according to U.S. prosecutors. Last month, federal authorities arrested the 30-year-old Ukrainian mastermind of KAT, Artem Vaulin, and formally charged him 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. Two other Ukrainians were named in the new indictment (PDF): Levgen (Eugene) Kutsenko and Oleksander (Alex) Radostin. While only Vaulin has been arrested, bench warrants have been issue for the arrest of all three men. Ars Technica reports: "Prosecutors say the three men developed and maintained the site together and used it to 'generate millions of dollars from the unlawful distribution of copyright-protected media, including movies, [...] television shows, music, video games, computer software, and electronic books.' They gave out 'Reputation' and 'User Achievement' awards to users who uploaded the most popular files, including a special award for users who had uploaded more than 1,000 torrents. The indictment presents a selection of the evidence that the government intends to use to convict the men, and it isn't just simple downloads of the copyrighted movies. The government combed through Vaulin's e-mails and traced the bitcoins that were given to him via a 'donation' button."
Is that the same as illegal hyperlinks?
Google is the biggest distributor of .torrent files I know of.
I doubt they make up seven percent of the Ukraine.
Stealing everyone's content and putting it up for free while making ad revenue of intellectual property they didn't create
If anyone at Google gets arrested for linking to infringing content, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Downloading torrents is a worse than murder, rape and paedophilia, didn't you know that?
What "millions of dollars" did the site generate? I can understand a claim of lost profits for the content owners, perhaps, but it's not like that translates into earned revenue for the site owners. And if they made money from paid memberships or ads or something, that's hardly illegal.
Google still remains the best torrent site ever. You can get any torrent on google and google is making money on ads that pay for those torrent search results.
Let's all just take a moment to honor the people that sacrifice so much for us. Without them, there wouldn't be a one-stop shop for commercial free content that can be obtained while using a VPN service. As an added bonus, nobody knows when you pause, rewind, fast forward, adjust the volume etc.
If you interact with US citizens, you are apparently subject to US laws. No borders. No sovereignty. You are a pawn in the global arena. Stepping outside your square will be dealt with swiftly and severely. Don't fuck with the US money /*holders*/ hoarders!
Is like Trent Reznor works at DOJ now instead of Apple.
I don't understand why someone in Ukraine is liable for violating the US's stupid copyright rules.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
Because we have solved crime and inequality in the U.S., our tax funded law enforcement and legal system can now focus its resources on foreign torrent sites, because they represent the next largest threat to everyday Americans.
Sure, it is. Hillary is associated with the murder of at least 50 people. Trump cheated and didn't pay people for their services. But, these two fuckers are running for the presidency whereas some foreigners have been arrested from other countries for copyright charges.
In case anyone is keeping score at home, according to the CIA
Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%, Hungarian 0.3%, Romanian 0.3%, Polish 0.3%, Jewish 0.2%, other 1.8% (2001 est.)
So maybe 1.8% black or African-American....err, African-Ukrainian? African-Asian? Probably not. I suspect most of them are just as white as the native Ukrainians and Russians and Polish people.
An interesting article about being a black American in Ukraine: A cop in Ukraine said he was detaining me because I was black. I appreciated it.
Money laundering? At least pretend that the words mean something other than "and now we can get what we really want. "
Requiem for the American Dream
No. And the more they push the less I'm buying. It's really that simple.
was arrested because he was the wrong nationality in the wrong country.
If he was Polish, Poland would never have extradited him.
But he's Ukrainian, and Poles don't exactly have a favorable view on them.
It's a good lesson for filesharers on minding your geo-politics in your business.
Two first maybe, but paedophilia is not even a crime.
I only use google to get torrents, can someone throw them in front of a judge please?
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=filetype:torrent+dvdrip+magnet
This is a transparent attempt to put the onus of policing copyright onto the shoulders of people who not only have no responsibility to do, but in point of fact cannot do so: only the copyright holder can decide what is an authorized copy. Google has neither the right, nor the obligation, nor the ability to police your content for you.
Others, do take note that no legal challenge or change has ever been penned by YouTube detractors, and I don't believe any will be so foolish as to do so. Also note well the focus of the complaint: the supposed profits of Google. The recording industry doesn't want a change in law, they just want a bigger cut. Don't be fooled.
If I become a citizen of a foreign planet, can I escape US justice?
Fuck yeah!
Obama had basically no further contact with blacks until he was 24.
Seems to have worked out well for him. Might be an example to emulate.
Eh, this isn't about combating piracy. It's about control over the available means of distribution. Attacking competing content delivery methods. Fighting piracy is just the socially acceptable face they put on it. When they shut down a file sharing server or torrent site, there's no distinction between legal or pirated files. They just want to make sure you have a harder time getting content from anyone but them.
And yet -- despite all this -- Kickass Torrent is still up, and it has plenty of fresh content.
(Just a minute ago I searched for this week's Mr Robot S02E08 on kickass.cd, and I got over two dozen different torrents.)
So, how are these US charges supposed to thwart file-sharing? I don't see the connection.
The US Gubmint, striking yet another blow against internet freedom! Listen and hear, you poor and you workers of the world - you will NOT have access to the same cultural data as your betters, and Soviet America will use the violent coercive power of the imperial state to make sure of it.
and rightfully so.
The social contract that was copyright was nullified when Sonny Bono & Mickey Mouse abolished public domain.
We give you limited monopoly of the distribution of content and in exchange you contribute to the public domain.
When they suspended public domain, they reneged on their side of the bargain. There is no reason that we should continue to uphold our side. And we haven't been. And we wont until there is once again some equity in it.
Piracy will continue to grow and profits will continue to shrink until this damaging concept is completely routed around.
and chased down by the government (rather than in civil court by those holding the copyright) but one never hears the same government actions against trademark violation?
The numbers above are way off for even the US, which is 12.3% black, not 7%. It makes you wonder where the AC racist got its numbers...probably its rear end.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Yeah, US is 12,3 percent black, but above comment talked about BLACK MALES (7%), not about black people as a whole.
Obama is not black.
Obama is a mulatto.
That is really different beeing than a black man.
That's because the government pays the white murderers who go into black neighborhoods under the guise of "protecting" them, so for many, local militias are the only effective defense.
So, Blacks are therefore 56.9% male? That doesn't sound right.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
> We need to impound all of the world's beaches.
Somebody call King Kanute. We need to get his advisors in here for this one...