KickassTorrents (commonly abbreviated KAT) was a website that provided a directory for torrent files and magnet links to facilitate peer-to-peer file sharing using the BitTorrent protocol. (Photo : YouTube/BNO News)
Speculations are rife that the much-loved torrent website Kickass Torrents may return in a new avatar as Kat.cr in February 2017. Kat.cr may have the original database and the look and feel of the parent website.
In July, the owner of Kickass Torrents Artem Paulim was arrested in Poland on many charges of copyright infringement. Till date, he has not been able to secure bail and is languishing in a prison cell.
After the demise of Kickass Torrents, numerous mirrors, proxies and lookalike websites cropped up in order to cater to the torrent lovers. However, most of them could not survive a long time as they were also served legal notices and forced to close down.
A few nifty scammers also tried to ride on the Kickass Torrents brandwagon and came up with some scamming websites, which used to ask for the personal and financial information of the users. Thousands of people were duped out of their financial details before word spread that these were scamming sites. They were promptly forced offline, according to Torrent Freak.
"The King of Torrents" The Pirate Bay soon reclaimed its position as the number one torrent website in the world, after Kickass Torrents was forced to shut shop. Extra Torrent also saw a surge in daily visitors and it quickly became the number two torrent website in the world, according to the same publication. However, their position in the torrenting world is at danger of being cut short and they may be also going down the Kickass Torrents route.
Meanwhile, the French authorities have also stepped up their efforts against piracy. In this regard, they forced the closure of two Kickass Torrent alternatives Zone Telechargement and DL Protect in France.
The offices of Zone Telechargement were raided by the French police on Nov. 29 and they were forced to go offline. After the raid, the website did manage to come back online but most of its services were not working. Similarly, DL Protect was also forced to shut shop when its owners were confronted by the French police.
Watch the video to know more about the Kickass Torrents alternatives here:
