YouTube to MP3 converter site closing down after legal battle
The 'stream-ripping' service is extremely popular
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YouTube ripping site YouTube-MP3.org is set to shut down.
The extremely popular website lets users convert YouTube videos to mp3 audio files, which they can then download and play whenever they want.
The practice is known as "stream-ripping" and the service is completely free, with each conversion taking a matter of minutes.
However, having been taken to court by a coalition of record labels – including Capitol Records, Warner Bros. Records and Sony Music Entertainment – last year, the site has has now agreed to shut down, reports TorrentFreak.
“Defendants are depriving Plaintiffs and their recording artists of the fruits of their labor, Defendants are profiting from the operation of the YTMP3 website,” they argued.
“Through the promise of illicit delivery of free music, Defendants have attracted millions of users to the YTMP3 website, which in turn generates advertising revenues for Defendants.”
The site has agreed to hand its domain over to one of the record labels.
Philip Matesanz, YouTube-MP3’s creator, has also been banned from “knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as ‘streamripping’”.
However, at the time of writing, YouTube-MP3 is still up.
“YouTube-mp3.org is the easiest online service for converting videos to mp3,” the website reads.
“You do not need an account, the only thing you need is a YouTube URL. We will start to convert the audiotrack of your videofile to mp3 as soon as you have submitted it and you will be able to download it.”
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