Month: July 2016

Nach kurzer Verspätung ist Pokémon Go nun auch in Japan erhältlich. Niantic-Chef John Hanke begrüßt die Spieler im Heimatland von Pikachu & Co mit einem Video - und der Empfehlung, auf sich aufzupassen. (Pokémon Go, Nintendo)

Überraschend hat Nvidia ein neues Topmodell angekündigt: Die Titan X heißt fast so wie ihre Vorgängerin, die Spieler-Grafikkarte basiert aber auf der Pascal-Architektur. Sie schlägt die Geforce GTX 1080 spielend, Preis und Verfügbarkeit zeigen jedoch den Sonderstatus der Titan X. (Nvidia Pascal, Grafikhardware)

With an active community and millions of regular visitors, KickassTorrents has been the most used torrent site for quite some time.

This ended abruptly earlier this week, following the arrest of its alleged founder in Poland. A criminal complaint from the U.S. Government revealed that entire operation had been compromised by the Department of Homeland Security.

Starting a few hours ago, the first Kickass domain was signed over to the U.S. authorities. Others are expected to follow during the days to come.

Kickass.to now displays a seizure notice, which means that the associated domain registry was quick to respond to the U.S. warrant. People who visit the Kickass.to address today will see the following banner, specifically tailored for KAT.

KAT’s seizure banner

As expected, the U.S. authorities are not the only ones to ‘lift’ KAT’s logo, many others are doing the same, but for a different reason.

Shortly after KAT went offline dozens of people began promoting mirrors and copies of the site. Some are just trying to keep lost files accessible, but there’s also a group trying to take over the brand, similar to the efforts seen following YIFY’s demise.

For example, the operator of Kickass.la sent an email to several reporters promoting a new KAT address. In a follow-up, we were told that the site is an “official backup,” and that a copy of the database is in their possession.

However, the site appears to be little more than a partial copy and the person behind it later admitted that they are not related to KAT.

Only adding to the confusion are the many other copies and alternatives claiming to be the official resurrection of KAT. Some even advertise themselves as such, but most have been available for a longer time as proxy/mirror sites.

Kickasstorrents.to, for example, has been around for a long time, hosting cached pages of the original site. The latter is also true for others, such as Dxtorrent.com. But in any case, there is no true backup with freshly added content available.

Another mirror that has been widely discussed is kickasstorrents.website.

Unlike others, the people behind this site are very clear about the fact that they are not related to the original KAT team. Their copy currently lists torrent files from the past one and a half years, but like other mirrors it doesn’t have a working forum or upload functionality.

“It’s not perfect but if users need to save and archive something it’s time. We don’t know how long it can last, but at least it’s something,” the site’s operator told TorrentFreak.

The people behind the site, who describe themselves as a group of individuals who stand for freedom of the Internet, also launched a petition on Change.org calling for the release of KAT’s alleged owner Artem Vaulin.

“We are protesting against violent attack on our right to share information and arrest of Kat.cr founder Artem Vaulin. Our freedom to share is the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users from all over the world,” they say.

While a notable effort, the banner promoting the cause appears to show a photo of an entirely different Artem Vaulin. The image was removed from the petition after we pointed this out, but it’s still present in the manifesto at the time of writing and being shared in news articles and on social media.

What is clear is that former KAT users are grasping at straws to get their old community back. While mirrors and copies do look like their old home, without a working forum and new content they don’t provide much of an alternative.

For now, people are probably better off not trusting any “KAT resurrection” claims. The chance of getting your password stolen is higher than finding a site with a true backup of the user database.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Mehr Leistung für unterwegs ist seit Intels Skylake-Chips vom Hersteller vorgesehen: Wir haben mit dem Schenker-Notebook H506 ausprobiert, wie sich das Overclocking eines Core i7-6820HK auswirkt. (Overclocking, Prozessor)

Gläubige Juden machen am Sabbat "Digital Detox". Doch seit alle Geräte denken können, müssen sie wichtige Fragen klären. Rabbis arbeiten mit Ingenieuren an Lösungen. (Digitalisierung, Internet)

Verhindern lässt sich ungewolltes Abhören nicht, aber zumindest Kenntnis darüber erlangen. Edward Snowden will eine Spezialhülle für das iPhone entwickeln, mit der sich jeder Datenverkehr des Smartphones kontrollieren lässt. Dazu muss das iPhone allerdings geöffnet werden. (iPhone, Smartphone)

Das Apple-Auto soll nicht wie geplant 2020 auf den Markt kommen. In einem Medienbericht ist von Personalprobleme die Rede. Der Leiter des Projekts soll gekündigt haben. Experten warnen schon seit einiger Zeit, dass Apple den Aufwand überschätze. (Apple, Technologie)

Lieferdrohnen werden größere Distanzen nur mit einer Rast überwinden können. Entsprechende Ladestationen will Amazon auf Straßenlampen, Kirchtürmen und Funktürmen installieren, wenn ein Patent umgesetzt wird, das dem Unternehmen zugesprochen wurde. (Drohne, Amazon)

BMW kann offenbar doch Daten von Drive-Now-Kunden empfangen und speichern, die eine Rekonstruktion des Bewegungsprofils ermöglichen. Einem Gericht lieferte der Autohersteller einem Medienbericht zufolge entsprechende Daten eines Unfallverursachers. (Drivenow, Technologie)

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