Kickass Torrents (KAT) owner Artem Vaulin had filed a motion to get the charges against him dismissed, but a U.S. court rejected it.
The torrents world continues to shake and it's in deep waters, just like Vaulin. The KAT owner was arrested in Poland back in July and charged with copyright infringement in the United States
The U.S. court firmly denied the motion, arguing that KAT has been serving as a "flea market for infringing" content, Christian Daily reports. KAT was among the world's biggest torrent sites and Vaulin's arrest was among the first signs of trouble, which didn't take long to materialize.
Kickass Torrents shut down, followed by Torrentz' demise, shaking the torrent scene to the core. Vaulin keeps fighting though and he got a powerful ally on his side: Ira Rothken, the lawyer who managed to keep Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom free for years.
Torrents Are Not Copyrighted Material
In seeking to get the charges dismissed, Vaulin's legal defense team argued that torrents are not copyrighted material and KAT operated similarly to Google, indexing BitTorrent files instead of other search results. Since torrent files are not illegal, operating a torrent search engine should not be illegal either, the defense team argued.
Despite Rothken's compelling argument, however, the motion did not achieve its goal and the U.S. refused to drop the charges against Vaulin. The court dismissed the arguments, denied Vaulin's motion to dismiss his indictment and argued that KAT helped users grab infringed content.
KAT Functioned Like A (Lucrative) Flea Market For Infringing Files
"These indexed files enabled users to obtain copyrighted content from other users, including from the defendant's own servers," the court argued in an 18-page response [pdf] shared by TorrentFreak. "KAT therefore functioned like a (lucrative) flea market for infringing movies, television shows, video games, music, and computer software."
U.S. attorney Zachary Fardon went as far as to compare Vaulin's motion for dismissal with a drug dealer's wish to get immunity because "he never touched the drug."
Conspiring With Aiding And Abetting Copyright Infringers
Fardon added that Vaulin operated KAT and the website included features that purportedly encouraged users to commit copyright infringement. Vaulin may not be the one who committed the copyright infringement, but he and his associates, now co-defendants, may still face charges of conspiring with aiding and abetting those KAT visitors who did commit copyright infringement, Fardon further said in his final argument.
It remains to be seen how things will pan out, but it seems like a long road ahead. In the meantime, the torrent world continues to shake, with more torrenting sites facing trouble.
