Kickass Torrents closed down,owner arrested

Johngoose

http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/kickass-torrents-alleged-ringleader-arrested-in-poland-charged-in-us-863428

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Yea, you can't really stop them from just setting up new ones.

Venom

And its back

Wheew! That sure was a scary few minutes

It is back up under a new domain a google search should get it...

Duggy747

The complaint said officials were able to track and identify Vaulin from records provided by Apple on his iCloud account.

You'd imagine someone like him wouldn't be using something that would be so easily obtainable from Apple.

Commentators on Reddit found it funny that Apple was refusing to unlock a terrorist and mass murderer's iPhone and yet handily gave over this person's personal information.

Obviously some privacy requirements are more important than others.

Flint Fredstone

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Commentators on Reddit found it funny that Apple was refusing to unlock a terrorist and mass murderer's iPhone and yet handily gave over this person's personal information.

Obviously some privacy requirements are more important than others.

I think it was more that they were refusing to give them the means to unlock the terrorist's iPhone therefore the ability to unlock anybody's iPhone.

Sad Professor

Just to be clear: Apple were ordered by a court to provide this information. And they weren't the only one. Info was also obtained from GoDaddy, Bitcoin and others. Apple's earlier dispute with the FBI involved creating a backdoor in their OS's encryption in order to obtain data stored on personal devices that even Apple don't currently have access to. Once created this could be exploited by others and/or set a legal precedent. It would have undermined the security of all their users.

What happened with this torrent guy is completely different. This was billing and IP information that was stored on Apple's servers. It was personal information but it wasn't encrypted and authorities have always been able to use court orders to obtain it.

ted1

That's mad, out of Intetest now that they have him what would be the next site they go after?

Stone Deaf 4evr

ted1 wrote: »

That's mad, out of Intetest now that they have him what would be the next site they go after?

joe.ie with a bit of luck.

ps3lover

All these pirate sites should be shut down!

irishgeo

i read they pretended to be an advertiser interested in advertising on kickass and in the transaction got a hold of his bank accounts and the cross referenced his ips with bitcoin and the site and nailed him that way.

intheclouds

How can the Feds arrest a Ukranian in Poland?

conorhal

intheclouds wrote: »

How can the Feds arrest a Ukranian in Poland?

Donno, European arrest warrant on foot of an extradition request? Just speculating.

Seanachai

intheclouds wrote: »

How can the Feds arrest a Ukranian in Poland?

I'd imagine the Ukranian government would be very keen to have the US on their side so they won't kick up a fuss about this sort of thing. Hopefully the crafty buggers find a way around it.

intheclouds

Seanachai wrote: »

I'd imagine the Ukranian government would be very keen to have the US on their side so they won't kick up a fuss about this sort of thing. Hopefully the crafty buggers find a way around it.

It just feels a bit, America, World Police.

LoLth

Its done by international agreement. Its not world police, its american law enforcement responding to a claim of copyright infringement raised by an American corporation.

Are you saying that unless you are in the same country as the victim you should be exempt from prosecution?

intheclouds

LoLth wrote: »

Are you saying that unless you are in the same country as the victim you should be exempt from prosecution?

Well if I committed a traffic offence in Germany I would be very surprised if I were prosecuted for it in Ireland.

If I have an abortion in the UK I do not expect to be prosecuted for it in Ireland.

If I go to Amsterdam and buy drugs over the counter and smoke them, I dont expect to be prosecuted in Ireland when I get home.

Who was the victim in this case?

Seanachai

LoLth wrote: »

Its done by international agreement. Its not world police, its american law enforcement responding to a claim of copyright infringement raised by an American corporation.

Are you saying that unless you are in the same country as the victim you should be exempt from prosecution?

I'd like to them focus their efforts on uprooting child abuse rings and labs that make pills that kill people in nightclubs but seeing as their bosses are up to the eyeballs in that stuff it's unlikely. Most of us that download also buy, this seems like a very petty pursuit that will most probably be a Pyrrhic victory in any case.

pixelburp

Seanachai wrote: »

I'd like to them focus their efforts on uprooting child abuse rings and labs that make pills that kill people in nightclubs but seeing as their bosses are up to the eyeballs in that stuff it's unlikely. Most of us that download also buy, this seems like a very petty pursuit that will most probably be a Pyrrhic victory in any case.

You make it sound like the FBI can't do both at the same time; and why would the cyber division be pursuing drug dealers anyway? But hey, I'm willing to take a wild guess that international criminal gangs are a little harder & more complicated to break apart & stamp out, than a disparate grouping of opportunistic nerds running some torrent servers who failed to take the most obvious security precautions

Said nerd who was arrested over KickAssTorrents was apparently using an Apple email account to run a KickAssTorrents facebook page :rolleyes: All the feds have to do was get a standard warrant and he was caught. Scarcely dealing with a criminal mastermind here.

http://gizmodo.com/the-colossal-screwups-that-got-the-kickass-torrents-own-1784033848

macslash

Can anyone tell me is popcorn time safe? Is it okay to talk about it on this even?

Kristopherus

ps3lover wrote: »

All these pirate sites should be shut down!

Dear Gawd, there's always one:mad:

macslash

Do you mean my post? ^^^

B.A._Baracus

I don't know why people make torrent websites. Like, don't get me wrong I am sure you make a ton from adverts displayed but no matter how long the website runs it will be taken down and you will be one the police haul away. Doesn't matter about the 50,000+ people who downloaded the new AAA marvel comic book movie through your site. The buck stops with you. So why do it?

or at the very least get in, make some money and call it quits before the sh*t hits the fan.

Chain Smoker

With Netflix et al gaining ground out of convenience more than anything, from here on out the piracy battle will mostly revolve around taking down the big site every now and then just to make it more hassle than its worth, I imagine?

Chain Smoker

Chain Smoker wrote: »

With Netflix et al gaining ground out of convenience more than anything, from here on out the piracy battle will mostly revolve around taking down the big site every now and then just to make it more hassle than its worth, I imagine?

A new one in there within minutes.

You'll never stop torrent sites. It's unwinnable.

Atomicjuicer0

For those who asked - Artists who work in the movie industry are the victims.

I studied media production for many years and all of my classmates got screwed over during the noughties with movie companies closing down all over the world.Some of us were lucky enough to find media work outside movies or TV.

That industry lost billions as a direct result of internet piracy.

The movie industry lost billions due to their unwillingness to change, to work with the behemoth that is the internet. If they work out partnerships with the likes of Netflix/Amazon/Yahoo/others to have simultaneous releases on both streaming and cinema releases, then I'd say the piracy rate would decrease dramatically.

intheclouds

Atomicjuicer0 wrote: »

For those who asked - Artists who work in the movie industry are the victims.

I studied media production for many years and all of my classmates got screwed over during the noughties with movie companies closing down all over the world.Some of us were lucky enough to find media work outside movies or TV.

That industry lost billions as a direct result of internet piracy.

No.

The movie industry was affected by the recession in the noughties same as every other industry.

The industry itself needs to move with the times.

Its just not acceptable for someone in Ireland to have to wait for a movie release that people in America are already discussing and streaming.

Get with the times movie industry, start offering accessible simultaneous streaming options and watch the piracy rates drop.

intheclouds

intheclouds wrote: »

No.

The movie industry was affected by the recession in the noughties same as every other industry.

The industry itself needs to move with the times.

Its just not acceptable for someone in Ireland to have to wait for a movie release that people in America are already discussing and streaming.

Get with the times movie industry, start offering accessible simultaneous streaming options and watch the piracy rates drop.

Staggered releases in the age of the Internet and the almost immediate transfer of information just doesn't make sense whatsoever.

pixelburp

Replacements will pop up whenever any of the bigger sites get shut down, but as slow as the media industry is to adapt, they are still adapting all the same, and the combination of improving streaming resources & the consistent hassle of actually getting Torrents will slowly drive piracy into the fringes. Trying to get non-tech savvy people to use Torrents myself is an education; if you don't know what you're doing, you can get into bother pretty fast & I can see why it's not really viable for many people. There will always be a black market of course, but the market is slowly changing.

Copyright law is a total ass though, you only have to do a little reading into YouTube's Content ID system to see what a clusterf*ck it can be for content creators who don't have clout or access to legal departments, but it's still a law and there are still victims. When you look at areas like game piracy, you frequently see small independent or solo game-makers - businesses - being screwed out of a living wage when pirate copies of their cheap, 10 dollar game end up on KickAss or the like.

Not that I'm being holier-than-thou here or anything, I *cough* have a cousin in America *wink wink* too, but if the avenue shrivels up it's a fair cop.

Sad Professor

Sad Professor wrote: »

Just to be clear: Apple were ordered by a court to provide this information. And they weren't the only one. Info was also obtained from GoDaddy, Bitcoin and others.

:rolleyes: sigh, ok FINE [puts down pitchfork and flaming torch]