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YTMP3 Wants Google to Identify Alleged DMCA FraudstersErnesto Van der Sar, 03 Nov 10:22 AM The DMCA takedown process allows copyright holders to rep

YTMP3 Wants Google to Identify Alleged DMCA Fraudsters Ernesto Van der Sar, 03 Nov 10:22 AM The DMCA takedown process allows copyright holders to report infringing content and have it removed or taken down. It's a powerful tool that takes millions of URLs and links offline every day. In most cases, this happens for a good reason, but some takedown efforts are more questionable. Fraudsters occasionally use false DMCA notices to target competitors. The strategy can be particularly effective when notices are sent to Google, as the search engine actively downranks domains that are frequently mentioned in takedown requests. YTMP3.nu Takedowns YTMP3.nu is one of the sites regularly targeted by takedown requests. The YouTube download portal has more than 40 million monthly visits but believes this figure would muc: higher today if Google hadn't removed many of its search results. The site is regularly targeted by legitimate music industry groups, including the RIAA and BPI, who allege that the site violates the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision. However, the stream-ripping service also views itself as a victim due to the bogus takedown notices sent by one or more competitors. YTMP3.nu and sister site Y2mate.nu are operated by CreativeCode Ltd, a company incorporated in Anguilla. In an attempt to curtail the abuse, the site sent a cease and desist letter to Google in April, asking the search engine to begin verifying senders of DMCA notices. In addition, YTMP3.nu also asked for a litigation hold in anticipation of future legal action. Fraudster Lawsuit This cease and desist notice was followed up by a lawsuit in August, where the company sued several "John Doe" competitors for sending false or fraudulent DMCA notices to Google. Filed at a federal court in California, the complaint accuses one or more CreativeCode competitors of sending fraudulent takedown notices. This includes one that was sent by "End Of YouTube Converter," claiming to protect the Rick Astley track "Never Gonna Give You Up." The unknown senders stand accused of violating the DMCA, Intentional Interference with Prospective Economic Advantage, and breaching California's Unfair Competition Law. Through the lawsuit, the YouTube rippers hope to recoup at least $500,000 in damages. While YTMP3.nu's parent company may have a valid claim, there's a key problem; the senders of these allegedly bogus takedown notices are unknown. To find out who they are, the company now seeks help from Google. Help from Google? A few days ago, CreativeCode submitted an ex parte application for immediate and limited discovery to the court, requesting Google to share all identifying information it has on the senders of these DMCA notices. The takedown requests are already shared publicly by Google through the Lumen Database, but these public listings omit privacy-sensitive data. This is exactly the type of information that the YouTube rippers need to expose the fraudsters. "Plaintiff anticipates that Google, as the recipient of the DMCA Notices, will have sufficient additional information regarding the Senders of the DMCA Notices that will be the only way that Plaintiffs can identify the Defendants in this matter," CreativeCode writes. Indeed, when people use Google's DMCA webform, they have to provide an email address, signature, and other pieces of information. The fraudsters likely used fake data, but Google may also have IP-addresses, linked YouTube accounts, and other metadata that could prove useful. "With this information, Plaintiffs can further subpoena an ISP, email provider, or other technology provider who may have further identifying information regarding the sender, such as a physical address." According to CreativeCode, the requested information is vital, as the company has no other options to find out who the DMCA takedown senders are. "As Doe Defendants cannot be identified, this lawsuit cannot proceed unless this Court grants Plaintiffs application to take early discovery," the company writes in its request, asking the court to grant the application. Content Neutral As mentioned earlier, the RIAA and BPI regularly ask Google to remove YTMP3.nu and Y2mate.nu URLs as well. The music companies classify YouTube rippers as anti-circumvention tools under the DMCA and Google typically honors their requests. The music companies' takedown notices are not covered by this lawsuit but CreativeCode rejects the notion that its sites break the law. "The functionality of the Websites is content neutral and there are substantial non-infringing reasons why users use the Websites, such as the fact that many publishers put out videos free from copyright and invite users to freely download and copy their work and a number of other non-infringing and fair uses," CreativeCode writes. Whether the YouTube rippers have plans to challenge this in court, like Yout.com is doing, is unknown. For now, they prefer to take on one battle at a time. — A copy of the CreativeCode's request, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, is available here (pdf) Update: the request has been approved with some small amendments. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Police Dismantle Pirate IPTV Operation, Bogus "€366m Losses" Claim Goes Viral Andy Maxwell, 02 Nov 09:41 PM An announcement by Spain's National Police (Policía Nacional) this morning was in many respects nothing out of the ordinary. In common with almost every country with a movie and TV show market to protect, Spain regularly conducts operations to shut down or disrupt local pirate IPTV services. The operation detailed in a press release this morning, distributed via official police website Policia.es and the Ministry of the Interior's website at Interior.gob.es, seems significant. Investigation Began Last Year The authorities say they began investigating the "criminal organization" in February 2022. From operations centers in Alicante and Seville, the suspects allegedly provided "fraudulent multimedia content" via IPTV by installing "fraudulent applications" on customers' devices, including set-top boxes, smart TVs, and mobile phones. As a result, movies, TV shows, and live sporting events, were available at a rate much lower than the legitimate market price. "The organization offered illegal services through a telecommunications consulting company that had a solid marketing structure at its service," police explained. "The members of the criminal network were in the provinces of Alicante, Malaga, and Valladolid, and their function was to market fraudulent services, maximizing the number of potential clients to be obtained while causing serious economic damage to the main victims of this type of illegal activity." Police carried out raids on four locations in Spain and a total of eight people were arrested; Valladolid (3), Alicante (3), Málaga (1) and Seville (1). All stand accused of serious crimes including membership of a criminal organization and intellectual property offenses. Police say the suspects had a "high degree of technological specialization" which allowed them to remotely manage clients who subscribed to sports audiovisual content. The suspects' "entire IT infrastructure" was dismantled, police report. Massive Damage to Rightsholders Before revealing the financial losses suffered by legitimate rightsholders, the police statement notes that while the criminal organization has been dismantled, those who subscribe to pirate services "are an active party in causing damage to the main victims of these activities through well-known loss of profits." In other words, members of the public who subscribed are partly responsible for the losses incurred by rightsholders. By any standard, the scale of the losses reported by police this morning are considerable. "[W]ell-known loss of profits…refers to the profits that the injured parties no longer receive as a consequence of the criminal activities investigated, which can be estimated at 366,250,000 euros." Anyone familiar with copyright-related losses will be aware that major rightsholders always go big on potential losses. They certainly look good in headlines like this one. Any figure can be justified with the right approach and since the numbers are hypothetical, the best a sensible argument to the contrary will ever achieve is the production of a smaller, more boring number. Calming Calculations Whether €366m in losses sounded reasonable or simply got everyone very, very excited this morning is unclear. According to dozens of local media outlets and increasingly those further afield, that number was reported by police and the government so needs no further scrutiny. According to police the-now dismantled service had 18,300 subscribers. So, if the total losses are €366 million, each individual subscriber to the service caused losses to rightsholders of €20,000. Inflation strikes again? On Second Thoughts…. Visitors to the press release made available on Policia.es this morning saw the text as it appears in the image below. Those who visit the site right now will notice that small but pretty important edits have taken place, as confirmed by the current text at this URL vs the copy from this morning as it appears in Google's cache. If this was a sudden recalculation at the last minute, that raises the question of why the new figure is actually unreasonably low. If it was a plain error, that's a human trait that none of us can avoid; what we can do is take it on the chin and publish a transparent correction. That doesn't appear to have happened here and that is already causing significant problems. As things standard, the truth can only be found buried away in an invisible edit. The media, on the other hand, simply printed what they were given, presumably based at least partly on trust (1,2,3) If the big loss claim isn't a fact on Wikipedia already, it will be soon. From there, anything can happen, and probably will. The Ministry of the Interior, meanwhile, is yet to change its mind. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Are you looking for a VPN service? TorrentFreak sponsor NordVPN has some excellent offers. ©2023 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company