Kickass Torrents is one of the most popular torrent sites on the internet. Its users upload thousands of files to the site daily, but as it seems they don't stay for long. In reality, in recent years the site has removed more than a million torrents to comply with takedown requests from rights holders.
Like many other torrent sites, KAT is often used for sharing pirated files, to the great disappointment of copyright owners.
However, unlike other sites such as Pirate Bay, KAT receives DMCA takedown notices. This means that rights holders have the ability to remove content due to infringements from the site.
This option has not gone unnoticed by the site users, who have often seen the torrents they upload disappear in real time. In other cases, it can be quite difficult to find the latest episode of your favorite TV-show.
TorrentFreak asked the Kickass Torrents team how many DMCA requests it receives.
According to official data from KAT, 15,794 torrent files were deleted last week, and 55,238 in the last month. This means the site deletes more than half a million torrents annually.
The fact is certainly a source of disappointment for users, but also encourages some others to seek creative solutions to “revive” the deleted torrents.
Thus in the Kickass Torrents forums the members of the site discuss alternative ways to gain access to content that has been removed. For example, creating a magnet link from the torrent's hash.
Aside from the discussion, however, users continue to re‑upload the files that have vanished, continuing the cat‑and‑mouse game.
