Several weeks ago, the RIAA managed to take down YouTubNow, a major YouTube stream-ripper, with just a subpoena.
Shortly after the major music organization’s court filing, the website, which boasted about its “powerful” service, went down.
Spinning the shutdown, YouTubNow’s website now reads (in grammatically-incorrect English),
“Sorry, the site is currently under maintaining.”
Going on the offensive against stream-ripping technology, the RIAA then targeted Y2Mate earlier this week.
The popular YouTube stream-ripper receives over 64 million unique visits each month. It currently ranks as the 570th most-visited site around the world.
According to the RIAA, though, Y2Mate offers “recordings which are owned by one or more of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use.”
In separate letters to both Cloudflare and NameCheap, the music organization has forcibly demanded the name, physical address, IP address, telephone number, e-mail address, payment information, account updates, and account history of Y2Mate’s owner.
Unfortunately, and unlike YouTubNow, the site’s owner – known only as ‘Muvi’ – has long prepared for the filing.
Not willing to back down, Muvi noted Y2Mate only exists to “create a copy of downloadable online-content for the private use of the user (‘fair use’).”
In addition, the stream-ripper’s copyright page reads,
“Muvi does not grant any rights to the contents, as it only acts as a technical service provider.”
While the RIAA may engage in a prolonged battle with Y2Mate – as it currently has with FLVTO and 2Conv – the major music organization has scored yet another key victory in a different piracy front.
The music industry v. cyberlockers.
In a coordinated effort, the RIAA, the IFPI, and Music Canada have successfully managed to take down DBR.
The file-hosting service had long stored unlicensed tracks, which included pre-release material. Users also frequently shared and leaked music through the cyberlocker.
DBR’s owner didn’t give a reason for the site’s closure. Instead, its domain name now forwards to a message from all three major music organizations.
“This site has been shut down following legal action for copyright infringement.
“Making available copyright-protected music on the internet without authorization from the copyright holder is illegal. Willful, commercial scale copyright infringement could lead to a criminal conviction. Illegal music services exploit the work of artists and pay nothing to those creating and investing in music.”
As with YouTubNow and Y2Mate, the RIAA had requested a subpoena from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Cloudflare.
The granted subpoena read,
“We have determined that users of your system or network have infringed our member record companies’ copyrighted sound recordings. Enclosed is a subpoena compliant with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.”
Like YouTubNow, DBR quickly folded its cards and preferred not to take on the music industry, shutting down its website instead. According to a separate report, the IFPI had promptly identified and contacted the site owner, who agreed to stop the illegal activities.
“DBR was responsible for large scale copyright infringement of music content.”
“On behalf of our member record companies, IFPI, RIAA, and Music Canada identified and contacted the site operator who has now agreed to shut down the site completely and not to infringe sound recording rights in the future.”
Sources claim the website was hosted in Canada, thus the reason for Music Canada’s involvement.
Daniel, it’s called DBREE. Five minutes research next time?
Time to shot down YouTube which is delivering just one$1B of music sawdust and and keeps $300B of music goodwill in the open!
UMG/ Vivendi investors should STOP first $20B streaming suicide and start divestment negotiations ONLY after $300B annual music harvest obvious to Borat is put into the motion.
DO NOT allow to be screwed out of 20x multiplier on your investment.
Music is THE BIGGEST monetization product on the web – STOP using it as a FERTILIZER on streaming and advertising FEUDAL farms!
To the music lawyer troll above me. No one likes your organizations . They have have no right to exist as an extortion racket. “Is what it is” And that’s really all I wanted to say. Short and to the point.