Over 44,000 fight for internet “rights” as petition for arrested Kickass torrents owner gains traction

It’s been less than a week since Artem Vaulin, the owner of Kickass Torrents (KAT) was arrested and the domains for his service seized by United States federal agents.

Prior to this raid, Kickass torrents was ranked as the most popular torrents site on the internet making it a leading portal for access to free content like software, movies, TV series, books, and music.

It’s not surprising then that the arrest triggered a huge outcry from the online community (or rather, the torrenting community), so much that a petition to “Free Artem Vaulin“ was started on Change.org.

Led by a group that is managing one of the many Kickass Torrent mirror sites that have emerged since Vaulin’s arrest, the petition mentions how the world is flooded by other pertinent issues like terrorism and how torrenting then shouldn’t be a priority.

One of the more remarkable themes of the petition is the play on torrenting as a right.

Our freedom to share is the human right which Artem Vaulin has been providing to millions of users. By arresting him our rights are violated.

So far the petition has attracted over 44,000 signatures (it has a target of 50,000 signatures) though it isn’t clear how much sway a successful campaign for universal access to content will have considering the severity of the charges faced by Vaulin. (For distributing content worth over $1 billion he faces four charges of copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering)

Kickass torrents like other torrent sites represent the double-edged nature of the internet. While it ensures widespread access to content (which justifies the reference to rights that everyone online is entitled to) it also opens the door to an unfair and illegal distribution of material that creators are supposed to get rewarded for.

The fact that it has become easy to access the same material doesn’t make it any less of a crime – even if some Robin Hood sentiment is attached to the effort.

Then again, there are 50,000 signatures and millions of other voices that will argue otherwise, calling for internet rights, when it’s actually just a petition for piracy.