When Kickass Torrents owner, Artem Paulim, was convicted of copyright infringement and arrested in Poland, it spelled immediate doom for many torrent sites, including the popular KAT. However, soon enough many lookalike websites, proxies and mirrors came up to keep the torrent lovers well fed. But these websites were also served legal notices and eventually had to shut down.
When Kickass Torrents went down, new scamming websites mushroomed as the users started looking for similar alternatives that allowed illegal download of media content. However, these websites asked for sensitive financial information, tricking thousands desperate users.
The Pirate Bay gained intense popularity and surged to top position in the wake of Kickass Torrents' fall down. However, as the authorities step up their efforts to end piracy, many such websites have either already been shutdown or face constant threat of closure.
However, despite the risk, Kickass Torrents are expected to come back to life in February 2017 as KAT.cr, reported Tech Times. While The Pirate Bay and Extra Torrent are in constant danger of being terminated, Kickass is planning its comeback.
Meanwhile, recent news reported that Netflix now allows its users to download shows to their device for offline viewing. This free of cost feature is included in the Netflix membership and is completely legal, reported Fox8 News.
With Google and law authorities determined to put torrent sites out of business and service providers like Amazon Prime and Netflix allowing users to download their favorite shows on their device, it seems that the end for piracy is near.
Despite the restriction, The Pirate Bay spokesperson said that even though the users will have to look for legitimate sources for their media content such as movies, music and TV shows, the company is not worried about their fate. They believe that the company will never be flagged by Google as a repeat offender.
As the rumors about legal implications of using torrent websites started doing the rounds, companies like Kickass Torrents and the Pirate Bay have every reason to be worried. However, it waits to be seen if these websites will be completely out of business someday.
