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Authorities Take Kickass Website Down
26 July 2013
When the popular content-sharing website KickassTorrents website at kat.ph went offline in June, many assumed that it was merely a temporary glitch. But it has now been confirmed that the website has lost its domain completely.
According to the Ubergizmo news website, music labels from the Philippines asked local authorities to close kat.ph due to copyright infringement. The government responded by seizing the domain with assistance of the local registrar (dotPH), which originally asked for a court order before carrying out the transfer of control. With all the paperwork now in order, the domain belongs to the local government.
The site has found a new haven – kickass.to – in the Pacific island nation of Tonga. Visitors to the previous kat.ph website are automatically redirected to the new site.
Unlike KickassTorrents, Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular torrent site, constantly changes its domain to stay ahead of the entertainment industry and police. Even so, Pirate Bay has recently been ordered by court to be banned by six internet service providers in Ireland.
The Irish Times reported that approximately 200,000 people – some 8% of Ireland’s internet users – use Pirate Bay on a regular basis. The companies seeking the court order included Sony, EMI, Warner Music and Universal, which claim combined losses of €20 million (US$26.7 million) per year.