A pirate website used by millions of people around the world has faced swift action from the Manx authorities, after adotping an Isle of Man domain.

KickassTorrents appeared online this morning with a website address bearing the Island's country domain .im

The site which allows users to download pirate copies of films, music, books and games, transferred to the Manx address from a Tongan domain.

Downloads on offer include films partly funded by the Isle of Man government.

However the .im address utilised by Kickass was taken down at 9.30 this morning (24 April) having only been live for a few hours overnight.

A spokesman for the IMRegistry said the Isle of Man takes its role as a responsible jurisdiction in this area very seriously - and its swift action demonstrates this.