Kickass Torrents Shut Down: Owner Ironically Arrested After Purchasing Something Legally On iTunes [VIDEO]
In what could only be described as the most ironic news of the day, Kickass Torrents founder Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland after he bought something legally through iTunes. Kickass Torrents had been the world's largest file-sharing website and has been prominently used to illegally distribute copies of movies, TV series, songs and other forms of digital data.
Vaulin had allegedly compromised his location after purchasing something on iTunes, then using the same IP address to log in to the official Kickass Torrents Facebook page.
The 30-year-old Vaulin founded Kickass Torrents back in 2008, where the site quickly became one of the most prominent places on the web where users can download illegal copies of digital content. Over the years, Kickass Torrents, better known as KAT, became the world's second-largest torrent site on the internet, second only to The Pirate Bay.
Following the crackdown on The Pirate Bay last year, which included the arrest of its three founders, Kickass Torrents became the undisputed champion of file-sharing sites on the net. Prior to Vaulin's arrest, KAT boasted over 50 million unique visitors every month, ranking it as the 68th most frequently-visited site on the internet.
With his arrest, Vaulin now faces charges of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, money laundering and two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Prosecutors have stated that through its run, KAT had stolen more than $1 billion in profits, mainly from the United States entertainment industry.
With most of its intellectual property falling prey to Vaulin, the U.S. government has already applied for the KAT founder's extradition. If he does get extradited to the United States, he would face a significant number of years in prison.
Of course, since its founder's arrest, the Kickass Torrents websites have been shut down, much to the chagrin of its users. Despite the regret of losing the internet's most prominent torrent site, however, many supporters of the file-sharing service could not deny the irony of Vaulin's arrest.
