It is a non-stop battle between anti-piracy movements and torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay (TPB) and Kickass Torrents (KAT), which are two of the big names when it comes to illegal file distribution. However, in order to stop anti-piracy advocates from disrupting KAT's daily operation, a dark web counterpart was put up, hiding the site in the Tor network.

Copyright holders are taking aim at torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents for years now and have been gaining ground to stop the spread of copyrighted materials from free distribution. It has even resulted in torrent sites having ISP level blockades in the U.K., Finland and several other countries. Australia may also be joining the list soon, News.com.au reported.

However, there are ways avoid a blockade, and torrent sites are known to use proxy sites. Now, Kickass Torrent moves ahead of the hunters and has joined the dark web and is now accessible via Tor (The Onion Router). Tor network was developed to hide identities, to surf the internet anonymously, and it cannot be blocked by internet service providers. Users can always access these kinds of sites on Tor.

Meanwhile, Ecumenical News reported that The Pirate Bay is now back using its .org extension, which has been abandoned for quite a time due to lawsuits. However, their last domain was ordered to be taken down due to a Swedish court that prohibited the torrent company to use a .se extension. To make matters worse, the .org domain can face more lawsuits especially from the United States since it is registered in Virginia.

The report also mentioned that TPB co-founder, Fredrik Neij, will make an appeal to get back the Swedish domain.

TPB joined Tor years back but still actively uses its main domain. Technical difficulties are also hindering a smooth operation of the site, which makes its service intermittent. Furthermore, many of its domains have already been blocked in different parts of the world, giving them fewer options.

Users of these websites can expect more news in the near future as copyright holders continuously fight to end illegal file distribution.