The US Justice Department arrests the suspected boss of online piracy site Kickass Torrents for distributing copied content worth $1 billion
Washington: The alleged boss of the world’s biggest online piracy site, Kickass Torrents, was hit with US criminal charges, accused of distributing over $1 billion worth of illegally copied films, music and other content.
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The Justice Department unveiled a criminal complaint against Ukrainian national Artem Vaulin (30), who was arrested in Poland and is wanted by the US for copyright infringement, money laundering and other charges.
Vaulin allegedly owns Kickass Torrents or KAT, which in recent years has eclipsed Pirate Bay and others to become the world’s biggest source of pirated media. The US criminal complaint 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.
KAT is estimated to be the 69th most frequently visited website on the internet. “Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell.
The complaint said officials were able to track Vaulin from records provided by Apple on his iCloud account.
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