As soon as the news was announced that Kickass Torrents, The Pirate Bay and Torrentz.eu were going to shut down, there was a storm of sorts online, with a number of proxy sites coming up. Now, even as there is a lot of news regarding the conflict between Kickass Torrents and its founder, KAT users are trying to figure out what will happen next to the website.
It is still not clear whether Artem Vaulin, the owner of Kickass Torrents who got arrested in July, has really founded the website or not. Even though there is a lack of clarity regarding who exactly the accused is, he has quite a firm legal defense in Ira Rothkin, who is convinced that the client and the Kickass Torrents site has not infringed copyright in anyway.
The defense says that the U.S. Government has erred in pointing that Vaulin had flawed criminal conduct. None of the crimes that he is accused of committing are true, is the explanation.
"We believe the US criminal complaint lacks merit. Torrent sites and trackers are devoid of any content files. If any infringement occurs it happens offsite and leaves Kickasstorrents behind," Rothken says. "Therefore, given the lack of direct willful copyright infringement, torrent sites do not violate criminal copyright laws."
So will KAT users again be able to access one of their main sources for BitTorrent files? It certainly isn't going to happen soon, as the U.S. Government will challenge the claims of KAT's legal counsel in the next few weeks, after all.
It is also not clear whether the original site, Kickass Torrents, will operate again or not, even if they win through. Currently, only some mirror or proxy sites with similar functionality and effect are being used, although the quality and security of these sites are not completely clear. Fans of the original Kickass Torrents sites still use it for music, movie, and other download queries.
An alternative to Kickass Torrents, The Pirate Bay, and Torrentz site, Unblocked.ist, gives access to users to a list of proxy sites for streaming and torrent downloads. Its safety and efficiency also have yet to be tested, though.
