YouTube stream-ripping site for the masses dead in wake of RIAA suit

The Recording Industry Association of America, the British Recorded Music Industry, and other industry lobbyists have sent piracy site Youtube-mp3.org down the memory hole. The site facilitated illicit stream-ripping for the masses.

The site, which shuttered to settle a US copyright infringement suit in Los Angeles, allowed pirates to drop a YouTube music video URL into a field on the site. Minutes later, users would get a fresh download of the music from the video. The site, according to the RIAA, was home to 60 million visitors a month.

"One of the world’s most egregious stream-ripping sites has shuttered. Sites like these undermine the health of the legitimate marketplace and the livelihoods of millions of music creators worldwide," Cary Sherman, the RIAA chairman and CEO, said in a statement Thursday.

The suit claimed that Youtube-mp3.org, whose operator was based in Germany, was "responsible for upwards of 40 percent of all unlawful stream-ripping of music from YouTube in the world." The RIAA said stream ripping "is now the most prevalent form of online music copyright infringement."

The suit was seeking to unplug the site and $150,000 in damages per infringement, the maximum amount allowed by US copyright law. A federal judge signed an injunction (PDF) Tuesday terminating the site.

Wow, that site was crap. Some people are just dumb.