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."

Comments

Better go arrest Google execs

[110010001000]

Google is the biggest distributor of .torrent files I know of.

Re: Better go arrest Google execs

[BlackSabbath]

Agreed. With the right search terms you don't even have to click through to the resulting page, you could just copy the magnet URL directly from the search summary.

Re:Better go arrest Google execs

[PocketPick]

There is a difference between providing a general purpose search engine that serves millions of legitimate needs (as well as a handful of illegitimate needs) and a site whose sole purpose is to provide people with easy access to electronic movies, music, games and other software that they would normally be required to purchase.

That difference? Intent.

I'm not saying that copyright law isn't broken, and certainly any service can be abused (including Google's search engine). But seriously...the organizational goals and company operations for Google and KickassTorrents are nothing alike.

For a modern, well-functioning commerce and legal framework to work, law enforcement have to be able to distinguish between the two. It's not black and white.

Re:Better go arrest Google execs

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please. YouTube is the #1 pirate site online. I can listen to just about every music file on there, in full, and can easily download it if I so choose. I can watch long scenes from movies and TV shows...in some cases, entire episodes and full movies. I can watch complete runs of video games. And best of all, Google isn't liable for any of it...they actually make the content holder have to sift through their site to find the content...and until then, they make money and KEEP THE MONEY from content deemed infringing.

Re:Better go arrest Google execs

[110010001000]

A handful of illegitimate needs? Google is the largest search engine of .torrent files on the web. Hardly a handful. Plus if you do a video search they link to tons of videos that are infringing on copyright. They even provide video previews of the illegal material on the search page!

Be careful what you wish for

[BitterOak]

If anyone at Google gets arrested for linking to infringing content, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it.

Re:Be careful what you wish for

[110010001000]

The Internet as we knew it ended long ago. Eventually it will be locked up tighter than you-know-what.

Re:as usual

[nnull]

Downloading torrents is a worse than murder, rape and paedophilia, didn't you know that?

"Millions of dollars"?

[Gamer_2k4]

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.

Be weary foreigners!

[xession]

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!

Jurisdiction

[jdavidb]

I don't understand why someone in Ukraine is liable for violating the US's stupid copyright rules.

Re:Jurisdiction

[Jhon]

The argument is that he had a presence in the US (server) which violated "US's stupid copyright rules". If I was in another country and remote controlled a drone in to the US and blew something up I would be violating US law. Yeah, it's a horrible analogy but it's about as close as you can get where you can visualize the argument.

I don't think it's going to be an easy thing for the prosecutors to prove WHERE he violated US law but that is kind of not an issue any more. KAT is down and essentially gone. The message has been sent -- you dip your toe in the torrent waters above a certain level and your life will be turned upside-down.

Your tax dollars at work.

[Snufu]

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.