As is so often the case with YouTube ripping applications, the question arises as to who is responsible for any violations – the provider of the program or service or the user using it. For rights holders, this question is irrelevant, they want to prevent violations under all circumstances.
That means YouTube rippers are constantly being inundated with takedowns under Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) guidelines. This is a simple and uncomplicated process in itself, with which links or infringements can be easily removed from the network. However, this does not represent a final judgment; anyone who receives an unjustified DMCA takedown can usually also file an objection.
DMCA abuse not uncommon
DMCA takedowns are a powerful tool that take millions of URLs and links offline every day. However, this can also be abused, because they can also be used to annoy providers, to put it kindly. How TorrentFreak reports, there have been numerous cases of DMCA abuse in recent years. This is also clearly forbidden and can be sued – this was shown by a case from mid-2022, when Bungie sued a YouTuber who sent unjustified mass takedowns against Destiny 2 fans.
YTMP3.nu is one of those services that are regularly exposed to such legal attacks. As a rule, these come from music lobby and anti-piracy groups, but in this specific case a competitor seems to be responsible for mass takedowns – without any basis. According to YTMP3.nu, this is caused by competitors who want to remove YTMP3 from the search results in order to improve their own ranking on Google. These takedowns are becoming more and more annoying for the operator of the site and he wants to put an end to the abuse. Therefore, the YouTube ripper hired his lawyer to send a cease and desist order to Google. YTMP3 not only threatens the sender of the takedowns, but also Google.
“We are writing to you on behalf of our client because it appears that Google has become an ignorant tool used by third parties to engage in fraudulent and unfair business practices that are causing our client significant harm,” the lawyer writes. “Our customer agrees to take prompt legal action against these third parties and if Google fails to comply with our customer’s requests, our customer will assume that Google is cooperating with these third parties in their fraudulent activities and reserves all rights against Google.”
Among other things, Google is required to ensure that the search engine giant checks the identity of the senders of DMCA notifications before taking any action. This includes the name of the sender, their email address and IP address.
- YouTube rippers allow for local backup of music/videos, but are regularly flooded with DMCA takedowns.
- Who is responsible for violations is a secondary matter for rights holders.
- DMCA takedowns are a powerful tool, but they can also be abused.
- YTMP3.nu threatens Google and shippers with takedowns as competitors are believed to be attempting to remove YTMP3 from search results.
- Lawyer demands that Google verify the identity of senders of DMCA notifications.
See also:
Copyright, File Sharing, Piracy, Copyright Infringement, Copyright, File Sharing, Piracy, Software Piracy
