YouTube-MP3.org News: Free Website for Converting and Downloading YouTube Videos to MP3 Format Shuts Down
The highly popular ripping site YouTube-MP3.org that converted videos to MP3 files for free has stopped its operations.
In a court decision filed on Sept. 1, the district court of the Central District of California favored the plaintiffs in their case against the website's administrator and owner Philip Matesanz. It was also revealed that the defendant agreed to surrender the domain to the plaintiffs.
The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs (composed of some of the biggest recording studios in Hollywood) "on all counts" that include: direct copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement, and circumvention of technological measures, according to the lawsuit filed in September 2016.
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The defendants were ordered to disable the website within 24 hours from the receipt of the court decision. Meanwhile, the domain name transfer must be completed within 30 days.
The website YouTube-MP3.org survived mainly from advertisements. It was openly accessible on the internet where anyone could freely use its services. People only needed to copy the link of any YouTube video and paste it onto an input bar found on top of the page.
Clicking the "Convert Video" button then enabled the site to do its trick and users were redirected to a page where they could download the converted music file.
The court "permanently restrained" anyone who had access in the operation of YouTube-MP3.org from continuing its services from "anywhere in the world."
Matesanz and other people affiliated in the operations of the ripping website were ordered not to access any servers and machines "that in any manner assist in or support the operation of the YTMP3 Service."
The court decision added that the people involved were also restricted from accessing "any use of any domain that includes the term 'youtube-mp3,' or any substantially or confusingly similar terms."
The involved parties were also permanently restricted by the court from "knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as "streamripping.'"
The site is now inaccessible.
