KickassTorrents lawyer: “torrent sites do not violate criminal copyright laws”

KickassTorrents (KAT) was the world’s largest BitTorrent distribution site before it was blocked by authorities earlier this year. Artem Vaulin, the alleged head of KAT, was arrested in Poland where now awaits extradition to the United States. Lawyers representing Vaulin have filed their formal legal response to prosecutors’ allegations of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, among other charges. “The fundamental flaw in the government’s untenable theory of prosecution is that there is no copyright protection for such torrent file instructions and addresses,” Rothken argued in his Monday motion to dismiss the charges against Vaulin. “Therefore, given the lack of direct willful copyright infringement, torrent sites do not violate criminal copyright laws.” Ira Rothken, defense lawyer