The situation seems grim for torrent sites after Kickass Torrents owner Artem Vaulin was arrested in Poland for  for copyright infringement.

In spite of reports that KAT was using mirror sites to continue operations, sites masquerading as mirror sites were proven to be scams that asked for the users' personal information.

Because of the crackdown on torrent sites, Torrenz, another one of the bigger torrent sites voluntarily shut down its operations for fear of legal repercussions, reported Bitbag.

Still, there are still those that are have increased their business with KAT out of commission. Among them are The Pirate Bay, which has regained its position from  KAT as the #1 downloading site on the net, as well as Extratorrents which has posted a 200 percent and 300 percent increase in sign ups. Other sites are posting similar experiences, reported Torrent Freak.

However, based on a report by Parent Herald, The Pirate Bay may be in danger of being shutdown since its partner Cloudflare became the subject of a lawsuit filed by ALS Scan, an adult entertainment publisher.

"The problems faced by ALS are not limited to the growing presence of sites featuring infringing content, or 'pirate' sites. A growing number of service providers are helping pirate sites thrive by supporting and engaging in commerce with these sites," ALS cited in its lawsuit.

Pundits are expecting authorities to use this legal issue as an opportunity to delve into Cloudflare's partnership with TPB and possibly shut it down as well. This will not be the first time that the site may get in legal trouble as its owner has already been arrested. Still, operations continue for the site.

The Pirate Bay, which has been operating for 13 years now, is one of the oldest torrent sites on the internet and was considered as the downloading site with the most number of users before KAT overtook its position in 2015 and 2016. WIth recent developments, it is increasing its strength anew with new users signing up by the day.