By now you are probably aware of the arrest of the Ukranian national Artem Vaulin, the boss of world’s biggest online piracy site, Kickass Torrents (Kat.cr). In what came as a shocker to the online community, the chief was arrested in Poland last week and is wanted by the United States for copyright infringement, money laundering, and other charges. In the latest development, Vaulin has hired Kim Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken to fight alleged criminal copyright charges filed against him.
Since his arrest last week, Vaulin is spending his time in Warsaw jail. Now he’s all set to take on the US government. This is a case that has gained worldwide attention and this being a case rife with legal issues and copyright infringement claims, warrants a big shot lawyer. Ira Rothken, the lawyer who will fight for Vaulin, is popular for having kept Kim Dotcom from being extradited to the United States for more than four years. Four years is a lot of time, considering the legal prowess of United States.
Rothken is expected to fight for Vaulin, arguing on the lines that there is no such thing as secondary copyright infringement. It’s worth noting that Dotcom story is very much similar to Kickass torrent’s story. Just as in Dotcom’s Megaupload case, Rothken is expected to argue that just because the site users committed infringement, it doesn’t necessary implicate the site’s owner. Speaking to ArsTechnica UK, he said, “It is a glorified set of hyperlinks, very much like you would get from a search engine like Google.” “This case of KickassTorrents, we’re not able to find any cases especially criminal case where a hyperlink was considered direct willful infringement. We believe that the US case here is without merit and ultimately the folks involved with that will win as a matter of law” he added. He argues that site like Kickass Torrents should follow the Grokster lines and be tried under civil, rather than criminal law.
Rothken is quite confident that Vaulin won’t be appearing in a Chicago courtroom anytime soon.
“It does appear to require dual criminality, like New Zealand,” he said. “And we have taken a preliminary view that this theory, this criminal theory of secondary copyright infringement, does not exist in Poland and does not exist in the US, and we think that if a dual criminality analysis ever gets done, an extradition would have to be rejected.”
With the hiring of a top lawyer who once defended Megaupload, speculations that Kickass Torrents stands a good chance of winning the case are doing rounds on the internet. So is Kickass Torrents coming back? Only time can tell! If the case is ruled in favour of kickass torrents, the site could be up and running soon in no time! In the meanwhile, you can check out the best torrent sites.