KickassTorrents a.k.a. KAT has enjoyed a substantial period of peace without government hostility and the lots of users downloading stuff from it. Then, the site eventually followed the fate of The Pirate Bay in July 2016 when accused owner Artem Vaulin was arrested.
According to report, there are huge chances and also might be a huge possibility that KAT has been put back online, even though it looks like the one who referred to is not really the original site but more of a mirror site.
The legal defence team of KAT owner Artem Vaulin has appealed in the Illinois District Court to dismiss the entire case. As according to the defence, the fundamental flaw of the case, is that torrent files themselves are not copyrighted content.
KickassTorrents was only torrent search index, the defence explain that the site use to provide a search function for torrent files, like Google but for BitTorrent files, that files themselves do not contain any copyrighted content, as Torrent Freak reported.
"The indictment only alleges that visitors to KAT may take advantage of KAT's automated search processes to search for and locate 'dot torrent' files. Such files contain textual information assembled by automated processes and do not contain copyrighted content," lead counsel Ira Rothken mentioned in the new court filing.
He also explained in the filing that the download of infringing content is done outside of the site and on the computers of the users, for which Kickass Torrents had no control of.
To get the conclusion, the defence said that the U.S. Government's claim of wilful direct criminal copyright infringement for operating a torrent site fails. for itself, they ask the federal court to dismiss the case in its entirety.
At this moment, KAT owner Artem Vaulin is behind bars after his bail was denied. The U.S. Government is expecting to counter these claims during the weeks to come, after which the court must make a decision.
You can also read the full memorandum of law in support of the motion to dismiss via this pdf file.
