YouTube-MP3 (YTMP3), the world's leading YouTube ripping site, has been ordered to pay an undisclosed settlement fee and transfer its domain to record labels who filed a copyright infringement claim against the site last year.
According to TorrentFreak, labels including Capitol Records, Warner Bros. Records and Sony Music Entertainment claimed that the site was responsible for 'upwards of 40 percent' of all illegal audio-ripping, naming 304 tracks including Lady Gaga’s Born This Way and Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On that were illegally audio-ripped using the service.
The popular site allows users to convert YouTube videos to mp3 audio files, which they can then download for free. This process of stream-ripping means the artist, songwriter, composer, publisher, producer and record company behind the track are denied the royalty they deserve.
The labels argued that 'defendants are depriving plaintiffs and their recording artists of the fruits of their labor' and 'are profiting from the operation of the YTMP3 website'.
They added that through the promise 'of illicit delivery of free music, defendants have attracted millions of users to the YTMP3 website, which in turn generates advertising revenues for defendants.'
The proposed final judgment of the case, once signed, will transfer the domain name to a party representing the labels.
YTMP3 creator Philip Matesanz has also been banned from 'knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as "streamripping"'.
According to TorrentFreak, labels including Capitol Records, Warner Bros. Records and Sony Music Entertainment claimed that the site was responsible for 'upwards of 40 percent' of all illegal audio-ripping, naming 304 tracks including Lady Gaga’s Born This Way and Missy Elliott's Get Ur Freak On that were illegally audio-ripped using the service.
The popular site allows users to convert YouTube videos to mp3 audio files, which they can then download for free. This process of stream-ripping means the artist, songwriter, composer, publisher, producer and record company behind the track are denied the royalty they deserve.
The labels argued that 'defendants are depriving plaintiffs and their recording artists of the fruits of their labor' and 'are profiting from the operation of the YTMP3 website'.
They added that through the promise 'of illicit delivery of free music, defendants have attracted millions of users to the YTMP3 website, which in turn generates advertising revenues for defendants.'
The proposed final judgment of the case, once signed, will transfer the domain name to a party representing the labels.
YTMP3 creator Philip Matesanz has also been banned from 'knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as "streamripping"'.
