Major Record labels including Universal, Sony Music, Warner Brothers, on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against YouTube-mp3.org, a German website that allows users to convert YouTube videos into audio files, for abetting copyright infringement.
The no-holds-barred lawsuit aims to exact as much as $150,000 (£115,000) for every song that has ever been ripped on the portal. The labels claim that the site "provides the site and facilities and means for its users to engage in copyright infringement, while profiting [through third-party advertising] from the infringement".
Between 2013 and 2015, there had been a 50% increase in illegal stream-ripping in the United States.
According to the BBC, the record labels claimed that "tens, or even hundreds, of millions of tracks are illegally copied and distributed by stream-ripping services each month". According to the Recording Industry Association of America, YouTube-mp3.org is the world's "largest" stream-ripping website, with more than 60 million users per month.
What is stream-ripping?
According to the RIAA, stream-ripping "is the process of ‘ripping’ or creating a downloadable file from content that is available to stream online. It is often done with music videos, to create copies of tracks that can be downloaded and listened to offline or on other devices".
According to Ipsos, a global market research and consulting firm, 49 per cent of all 16- to 24-year-olds engaged in stream-ripping.
Why is this a problem?
Every time a song is played on an exclusive YouTube channel, the artiste or producer of the song earns royalty. By enabling someone to create a permanent audio file from a YouTube video, stream-ripping obviates this contract between the artiste and their platform, and deprives them of the right to be compensated for their work. So, in effect, the stream-ripper is stealing from the artiste in broad daylight.
Moreover, the RIAA said: "It should not be so easy to engage in this activity in the first place, and no stream-ripping site should appear at the top of any search result or app chart."
This is a violation of YouTube's policy as well, given that YouTube makes its videos available to its users for viewing and listening online, but not for copying or downloading.
