You will still find a Kickass way to illegally download films

Deepak Kumarmoneycontrol.com

The most popular torrent site in the world Kickass Torrents (KAT) has finally been put to rest. The 30-year-old Ukrainian Artem Vaulin, who is allegedly the owner of the website, was arrested by the US government in Poland, charging him with criminal copyright infringement. It may be the end for the peer-to-peer sharing website, but the Indian piracy scene is most likely to remain unshaken. Still, the first go-to website for movie downloads, among others, are illegal sites.

Being a Bollywood aficianado, an MBA aspirant from Mumbai claims he seldom uses KAT. "I have mostly downloaded music from Songs.pk or Apunkabollywood.net and for movies, I prefer Desitorrents.com. There are many options for Bollywood buffs like me," he says.

Films like the Rajinikanth starrer Kabali following Sultan and Udta Punjab, was leaked days before its theatrical release. The Indian film industry has been losing billions of dollars due to illegal downloads. And it seems music distribution companies and film production houses are hardly going to get any relief from this news.  

According to a 2013 media report, the Indian film industry loses Rs 18,000 crore and some 60,000 jobs every year thanks to piracy. 

"Downloading copyrighted material from torrent websites amounts to abetting the crime, which attracts the same punishment as the offender," says Prashant Mali, cyber expert Lawyer and antipiracy campaigner. Unfortunately, there is no explicit law in India banning the download of torrent files, says Prashant. There is a law for data theft and copyright violation in India. It only comes into effect when someone complains about copyright violation. While piracy may seem like a force that cannot be stopped in India, efforts by the government can at least help curtail the situation to an extent. 

The government should appoint a copyright watchdog, says Mali, who will scan the internet for such violations and when found should remove it from websites or ban such websites at the internet service provider (ISP) level. There is no absolute way to curb piracy; only sustained steps can be taken. 

"If piracy is made a costlier affair where people doing piracy are put behind bars, deterrence can do the job," he says.

But the government is not at any direct loss from piracy. It may not implement any such safeguards against counterfeit media. The entire entertainment industry may continue to suffer huge losses. The end of one such website will only give birth to another. 

KAT's immense fan following has led to many clones, the most famous being KAT.am. KAT still hasn't made an official comeback akin to Piratebay, which had gone down in a similar fashion last year but had returned all guns blazing. Piratebay was back, running on virtual servers, operating from locations all around the world making it difficult to track. 

Prashant says that once a cult is made the actual owner of the website is also not required to run things. "The owner can languish in jail. The brand is used by other criminals and they make websites from other countries with different names where cyber law or copyright regime is not so great or governments are weak. The last domain used by Kickass was from Somalia," he says.