Owner of illegal file sharing site arrested in Poland

US authorities announced that they have arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of the most-visited file sharing site online: Kickass Torrents (or KAT).

Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said that Valuin was responsible for running the “most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $US1 billion of copyrighted materials”.

In response to past lawsuits, seizures, and court actions in six countries, prosecutors said, Vaulin moved his web domains and changed their names to stay in business.

The Justice Department will now seek his extradition to the USA, where he will face charges.

Kickass Torrents receives more than 50 million unique monthly visitors, according to officials.

The criminal complaint according to AFP said the website offers “a sophisticated and user-friendly environment in which its users are able to search for and locate content” which is protected by copyright.

Copyright infringement exacts a large toll, a very human one, on the artists and businesses whose livelihood hinges on their creative inventions.

The world’s favourite torrent website, KickAss Torrents, is down and out with Polish cops arresting its alleged operator Artem Vaulin. The attorney general suggested in a statement that KAT had “stole [n] more than $1 billion in profits from the USA entertainment industry”. The US Department of Justice press release included statements from the authorities regarding his arrest. They have also revealed that they went undercover to advertise on the torrent site, through which they learned about the company’s bank account. Investigators captured the cyber mastermind after Apple provided them with personal details, allowing them to match an IP address used on the KAT Facebook page with one tied to an iTunes purchase. “The same IP Address was used on the same day to login into the KAT Facebook”.

Furthermore, Similar Web says KAT.cr domain’s global ranking is 54. They also allege that Vaulin was running the company Cryptoneat, which they say was used in part to hide some of KAT’s operations.

While the authorities don’t appear to have seized the primary domain (KAT.ch) yet – it’s typically replaced with a notice saying it has been seized – the site is unresponsive and essentially down for most people.

This is not the first time, such an incident occurred before where ThePirateBay founder was arrested and site was taken down.