“When you’re the owner of the world’s biggest torrent-sharing site, the last thing you’d expect to land you in trouble would be a totally legitimate (and legal) purchase via iTunes,” Matt Brian reports for Engadget. ” But that’s what happened to 30-year-old Ukrainian Artem Vaulin a.k.a ‘tirm,’ owner and operator of KickassTorrents (KAT), who was yesterday arrested and charged in Poland for criminal copyright infringement and money laundering.”
“He’s been accused of illegally reproducing and distributing hundreds of millions of copies of movies, video games, TV shows and music albums totalling more than $1 billion,” Brian reports. “The US is now waiting to extradite him.”
“In a 48-page criminal complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Chicago, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reveals how it was able to track Vaulin,” Brian reports. “Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a special agent with the US Department of Homeland Security, was tasked with tracking the man behind KAT and it’s his report that attempts to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that Vaulin should be brought to justice. This is how it played out.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple put all of the pieces together.
I never heard of this Torrent site. Must be because I actually pay for stuff.
May the law kick his ass with torrent of ferocity.
Nice police work. Get the crooks off the net.
What a waste of money…why is Homeland Security involved with Internet piracy and torrenting? Is there not more important things to deal with like isis?
Why is Homeland Security more like worlds traffic cop now?
@Vitalogy
At the very least, think of it as good practice. The same skills that allow a criminal to hide and operate a torrent site are the sorts of skills that might be used to hold a hospital for ransom until so many bitcoins are paid. They’re the same skills that will let somebody shut down a power plant. It’s a continuum that goes from bad to worse.
This is the dark web and there’s a lot of cross-fertilization. I’m happy to let Homeland Security (this will actually be the Secret Service–now part of HS) get in a little rehearsal time.
Meanwhile ISIS and other similar disgusting scum OPENLY use American social media.
What about Apple customer privacy priority… ? Am i missing something here/
Did not matter in this case?
I’m sure the data was anonymized
One would assume that Apple followed common sense and made sure that they had a legal Warrant. Jurisdiction was because this involved interstate commerce & fraud/theft.
FYI, while some discussions on this have tried to draw a parallel between the FBI iPhone hacking controversy, these two events really are two completely different animals: unlike the FBI hacking/cracking case, there were no relevant legal precedencies here for Apple to even consider contesting the Warrant.
Karma’s a Bitch – assholes need to be wiped out frequently.
Never expected all people frequenting this site to be holier than the pope…..