The head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, has suggested that his organization was crucial in getting KickassTorrents taken down:
Earlier this year KickassTorrents was taken down following a criminal investigation into the site's alleged operators. While the U.S. Department of Justice handles the case, based on an FBI investigation, they were not the only ones involved. According to comments made by MPAA boss Chris Dodd, Hollywood played a crucial role as well.
[...] "We have now established a global hub — an office in Brussels. It has been tremendously successful in closing down Kickass Torrents, the single largest pirate site in the world," Dodd told Variety in an interview. The major movie studios have helped in similar criminal cases before, so this doesn't come as a complete surprise. Generally speaking, however, the MPAA is not particularly open about the role it plays in federal investigations.
Although the takedown of KickassTorrents was a major success for Hollywood, piracy remains a problem. It's even come to a point where Dodd himself is using the "hydra" terminology, which The Pirate Bay's crew first brought up a decade ago. The MPAA says that successes are still being booked every day, but they require more sophisticated methods than were used in the past. "We make great inroads, but it is a problem that isn't going away. Some days I do feel it is hydra-headed. But in the past few years, we have developed a more sophisticated and efficient way of dealing with piracy issues."
The next day (December 15th, 2016), the site was resurrected (albeit with a huge traffic load causing timeouts):
Shortly after the shutdown, several KAT-crew members regrouped in an effort to get the community part of the site back up. They launched the Katcr.co forum as their new home and hinted that torrents could come back too, in the future.
Today is the big day as Katcr.co (KATcr) has now launched a fully operational torrent site, which looks identical to its predecessor. The site starts with a clean user database but many members of the original staff are on board. "The majority of our original Staff, Admins and Moderation team joined us after Kat.cr went down – which is something we're very proud of. This shows the loyalty, dedication and real love for KAT that we all share," The KATcr team told TorrentFreak.
[...] Perhaps just as importantly, many of the site's renowned uploaders are also back. As a result, the site will be populated with a lot of fresh content right from the start. "We have all our major uploaders on board and they continued to share tirelessly even before the torrent engines returned. The torrent community can continue to expect to see uploads from all the names they know and trust," the KATcr crew says.
The relaunched site does seem to be experiencing some growing pains and continues to experience timeouts due to high traffic.
Previously: KickassTorrents Alleged Owner Arrested, Domain Names Seized
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @04:50PM
You still on about that Russia thing? That's funny. Russia is NOT THE PROBLEM IN AMERICA TODAY. Russia is a distraction. That's sad.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @05:08PM
^Putin's boy posting from Russia
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @05:59PM
Hey, I"m not from Russia. DNC shill is butt-hurt about all their dirty laundry exposed. Russia is being used as a smoke-screen to cover the terrible truth that the Dems lost the election all by themselves.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @06:25PM
Internal opposition to Sanders at DNC HQ: Corruption!
Internal opposition to Trump at RNC HQ: It doesn't exist! We are a unified party!
Of course Putin wouldn't pick his favorite to become President. Putin doesn't have a reason to hate Hillary. Trump's people aren't doing business with Russia.
Losing isn't so bad for the Dems. They will have a chance to purge and rebuild while Republicans learn to be disappointed in their two-faced champion. They will beg to return to the days of corrupt mainstream party insiders.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 17 2016, @06:54PM
You didn't pay any attention at all during the election. The Republicans hate Trump. The only thing in America today that is despised more than Trump - is Hillary. Why do clueless fools even bother to post on subjects they know nothing about?
In 2017, the White House will pass from Democrat occupancy, to unwashed barbarian occupancy. Not that there's much difference . . . .
(Score: 2, Touché) by aristarchus on Saturday December 17 2016, @07:03PM
Why do clueless fools even bother to post on subjects they know nothing about?
Wow! This is such a great question! Especially considering the interrogator!
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 17 2016, @07:05PM
There you go again - running at the mouth, making personal attacks. Are you SURE you don't need a time out?
(Score: 2, Touché) by aristarchus on Saturday December 17 2016, @07:44PM
Why do clueless fools even bother to post on subjects they know nothing about?
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday December 17 2016, @08:24PM
The establishment Republicans hated Trump, the voters apparently didn't, or at least not as much as the Democrats hated Hillary.
The GOP was never as divided this cycle as the media made it out to be. Unlike the Democrats that were deeply divided due in large part to them rigging the primaries for a right of center candidate with no hope of winning.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Saturday December 17 2016, @08:51PM
--Why do clueless fools even bother to post on subjects they know nothing about?
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday December 17 2016, @09:13PM
I don't know, you tell me.
(Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday December 17 2016, @09:31PM
I don't know,
This, Francis, is why you fail.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 17 2016, @09:54PM
Nope, this is why you fail.
(Score: 2, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday December 17 2016, @11:36PM
Thank you, AC, for you Herculean effort to get this thread back on track!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @01:51AM
LOL, you've just go karma to burn haven't you?