I have found myself wondering how God will judge Nigerians for using pirated software. LOL. Almost none of us will be found innocent. That’s not to mention the ease with which we download countless hours of music, movies and series for free when we actually ought to be paying for them.
But while millions of us are grateful to owners of pirate sites like KickAss Torrents (KAT), law enforcement agents have been after their owners and it looks like they’ve nabbed one of them.
His name is Artem Vaulin and he is a 30-year old Ukranian, suspected to be the owner of kickAss Torrents – the world’s largest torrent site. He was arrested by US authorities sometime last week and as the owner of the illegal file-sharing site, he’s been charged with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and two counts of criminal copyright infringement.
A statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice website accused Vaulin of stealing; “More than 1 billion in profits from the U.S. entertainment industry adding that KAT receives more than 50 million unique visitor hits a month”.
He could face as much as 20 years of imprisonment and that is from money laundering alone.
What do you think about Artem Vaulin’s arrest? Do you think he should be punished for providing a site that’s given so many of us access to software, music and movies we otherwise would have paid so much to get?