14 DAY TRIAL // KickassTorrents is getting on the blacklist of a bunch of ISPs following pressure from the world’s recording labels.
Following the resounding success of getting The Pirate Bay blocked in so many countries in the past couple of years, the recording labels are back and setting eyes on KickassTorrents, the second most popular site of its kind in the entire world, TorrentFreak reports.
Sony, Universal and Warner Music, some of the labels having shut down The Pirate Bay earlier this year, have announced their intention to head off to the High Court to demand that Ireland’s biggest Internet service providers – Vodafone, UPC, O2, Digiweb and Hutchinson 3D Ireland – block access to KickassTorrents.
While UPC is known to be one of the main fighters against blocking demands, the company admits it has been served legal papers. “UPC decline Irma’s request in pre-litigation correspondence to voluntarily block Kat. Our position is that ISPs should not, on a voluntary basis, choose what can or should be consumed by Internet users. Such matters are for the government or the courts to decide,” the ISP said.
Not all other companies share the same opinion, however, and many have said they are likely to strike a deal to block off the popular torrent site, even without a court order.
KickassTorrents hasn’t been a stranger to some drama over the past year. Following complaints over complaints, the site lost its Philippines domain after a temporary injunction, pushing the site to move over to another .to domain. It wasn’t long after that that they managed to get the Philippines domain back, however, but threats continue to loom over the site.
Its homepage was targeted through a DMCA notice that Google pretty much ignored, but the site itself has already been blocked in several countries, including the United Kingdom.