Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. But fans of Kickass Torrents are sure to migrate to competing sites like Torrentz, ExtraTorrent, and BitSnoop. This latest federal takedown focused on the largest torrent site at the moment. They also looked into Vaulin's records at Facebook ( FB).Īccording to law enforcement, Vaulin posed as the lead engineer of a company called Cryptoneat - which was really a front company for this massive online piracy operation. They then used records kept by Apple ( AAPL) to link the Apple email account to Vaulin. He points out how summer blockbuster movies like 2009's 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,' 2011's 'Captain America: the First Avenger,' and 2014's 'The Amazing Spiderman 2' all appeared on Kickass Torrents while they were still in theaters.Īlthough the sharing was free, Kickass Torrents was raking in advertising revenue on its website - maybe as close as $17 million a year, according to some estimates listed in the agent's affidavit.įederal agents allegedly identified Vaulin by an online name, tirm. Department of Homeland Security affidavit supporting the government's case, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement special agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan lists several examples of theft. The sealed criminal complaint against Vaulin was filed there on July 8. The cybercrimes unit at the Justice Department's office in Chicago investigated the case. Most recently, it was available at kat.cr, a Costa Rican domain. It operated as, then it moved to website addresses registered in the Philippines, the tiny Polynesian island of Tonga, Somalia, and elsewhere. Like most torrent websites, Kickass Torrents was forced to change its web address repeatedly to avoid legal entanglements. Related: Napster founder Sean Parker announces $250 million grant to fight cancer Then a separate program, called a BitTorrent client, actually downloads or uploads the file. The primary method of file sharing right now is through something called 'torrents.' A website like Kickass Torrents provides a searchable list of files available for swapping. He's accused of operating a website that allowed people to share movies, video games, television shows and music worth more than $1 billion. government will ask the Polish government to extradite Vaulin to the United States, where he will be prosecuted. Online piracy - essentially copying a digital file and sharing it - sucks revenue out of media publishing companies, which pay fees to the artists who create the work. Fardon said: 'Copyright infringement exacts a large toll, a very human one, on the artists and businesses whose livelihood hinges on their creative inventions.' In a statement, federal prosecutor Zachary T.

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Why did extratorrent shut down