Youtube-mp3.org has more than 60 million unique users a month.
The world’s largest stream-ripping site is to be shut down following a lawsuit between the major labels and site owner Philip Matesanz’s company PMD Technologie UG.
Last year, labels including UMG, Sony Music, and Warner Bros. took out a landmark £35 million lawsuit against the owner of the German-based site in a federal court in LA. Youtube-mp3.org is allegedly responsible for more than 40 per cent of all music ripped from YouTube.
The lawsuit listed 300 songs that had been allegedly converted from video to MP3 and downloaded by users. It sought damages of $150,000 (£115,000) for every alleged instance of piracy. Now according to The Verge, Matesanz has agreed to transfer the domain to a party representing the labels and to pay an undisclosed settlement fee.
The site is still live, and the final judgment has yet to signed by the court, but according to legal documents, Matesanz will soon be banned from “knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as stream-ripping.’”
In July, stream-ripping was declared the “most aggressive” and “fastest-growing” form of music piracy, according to research carried out by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and PRS For Music.
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