“Stream ripping has become a major threat to the music industry,” says the new lawsuit filed by some of the world’s major record labels in an attempt to tackle what they feel is a serious problem caused by YouTube stream ripping sites.
Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony have joined forces to sue the most prolific of such streaming sites in California federal court. The site is YouTube-mp3.org, one of the countless destinations where music fans can simply copy and paste a YouTube video’s URL to rip and download its audio. Billboard broke the news on the lawsuit, specifying that the labels who filed the lawsuit claim that YouTube-mp3.org and other similar sites put the music industry in jeopardy as they allow individuals to effectively illegally download music instead of paying for downloads or streaming subscriptions. According to the lawsuit, which can be viewed here, YouTube-mp3.org is responsible for around 40% of the hundreds of millions of tracks downloaded through these types of sites on a monthly basis. To clarify, YouTube itself is not a target of the lawsuit and is not being held accountable for the actions of these independent and “rogue” sites.
YouTube-mp3.org is alleged to be run by a German company and German citizen named Philip Matesanz. The accusations include those of copyright infringement as well as claims for contributory copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement and inducement of copyright infringement.
