KickassTorrents has lost access to its Kickass.so domain name and is currently offline. The Somalian domain of the most-visited torrent site on the Internet is now listed as "banned" by the .SO registry, forcing the site's operators to find a new home.
With millions of unique visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one the most used torrent sites on the Internet.
The site’s popularity has made it a prime target for copyright holders, many of whom would like to see the site taken offline.
To evade law enforcement and ease pressure from the entertainment industries, KAT has moved domain on a few occasions over the past several years. Most recently the site has been operating from the Kickass.so domain.
The Somalian .so TLD appeared to be a relatively safe haven, but today it’s apparent that this isn’t the case. About an hour ago the Kickass.so domain status listing was updated to “banned.”
As a result of the domain seizure, users can no longer access the site. The Kickass.so domain name is not resolving and at the time of writing neither are older alternatives such as kickass.to.
Kickass.so was seized by the .SO registry who also blacklisted the scam site kickasstorrents.so, which is not affiliated with the KAT team. It is likely that the registry acted following a complaint from copyright holders although this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Previously The pìrâ†é Bay lost several of its domain names, including thepiratebay.ac and and thepiratebay.sx, after similar complaints.
TF asked the .So registry for a comment on the situation but we have yet to receive a reply.
While KickassTorrents is down for the moment, it is expected that the site will move its operation to a new domain name later today, or revert back to Kickass.to.
Update: The KAT team informed TF that they are reverting back to Kickass.to.
Update: The site’s accessible to most people on the .to domain now.