Major Labels Team Up to Sue Websites Ripping Audio from YouTube Videos

Universal, Warner Bros, Sony and other big record labels filed a lawsuit on Friday (Aug. 3) against two Russia-based illegal stream-ripping websites, FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com. 

The websites allow users to rip the audio from videos on YouTube and combined receive more than 120 million monthly visitors, according to the suit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia. With some quick copy and pasting of URLs, a YouTube video is turned into a permanent MP3 format. The suit comes two years after a similar 2016 filing against the world’s largest stream-ripping site, YouTube-mp3.org for copyright violations. The site complied and agreed to shut down.

Related

Ed Sheeran's Copyright Battles Are Much Weirder Than Anyone Can Imagine

06/28/2018

Unlike other steam-ripping sites, FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com have continued their site’s activity despite warning letter from the RIAA and IFPI.

“These sites have no place in today’s music market where fans have access to millions of songs from dozens of legitimate services that pay creators and value their work, all at the tap of a finger,” RIAA said in a comment. “This action should serve as an unmistakable warning to operators of similar sites that schemes to rob music creators and profit from the theft of their music will not be tolerated.”