KickassTorrents
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Type of site
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Torrent directory, magnet links provider |
|---|---|
| Available in | Multilingual (30+), primary English |
| Website | kat |
| Registration | Optional |
| Users | Over 1M per day as of August 2015 |
| Launched | November 2008 |
| Current status | Offline |
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. It was founded in 2008 and went offline on 20 July 2016, when the domain was seized by the United States government. The site's proxy servers were shut down by its staff at the same time.
In November 2014, KAT became the most visited BitTorrent directory in the world, overtaking The Pirate Bay, according to the site's Alexa ranking.
KickassTorrents says that it complies with the DMCA and it removes infringing torrents reported by content owners.
KAT was initially launched in November 2008 at the domain name kickasstorrents.com.
On 21 April 2011, KickassTorrents moved to the Philippines domain name kat.ph after a series of domain name seizures by the United States Department of Justice against Demonoid and Torrentz. The site later moved to several different domains, which the operators plan to do every six months, including ka.tt, kickass.to, kickass.so, kickasstorrents.im and kat.cr.
On 28 February 2013, Internet service providers (ISPs) in the United Kingdom were ordered by the High Court in London to block access to KickassTorrents, along with two other torrent sites. Judge Richard Arnold ruled that the site's design contributed to copyright infringement.
On 14 June 2013, the domain name was changed to Tonga domain name kickass.to as a part of the site's regular domain change.
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