Deezer Wages War Against Deezloader, DeezerDownload, and Deeze Clones

Has Deezer inadvertently sparked renewed interest in stream ripping tools?

According to the RIAA, stream ripping websites and tools cost the music industry millions of dollars per year. Following a lengthy legal battle, however, the music organization proudly celebrated a significant victory earlier this year. YouTube-mp3.org agreed to shut down several months ago. Its owner accepted full responsibility for copyright infringement. In addition, he handed over the site’s domain to a major record label.

As the RIAA noted in a report published last October, however, the battle against music piracy hubs is far from over. Dozens of stream ripping websites are still readily available, with several “doubling down” on purportedly illegal behavior. These include popular sites like MP3Juices.cc, Convert2MP3, and FLVTO. In fact, doing a quick search on Spotify streaming ripping on Google, you’ll find several guides on how to “losslessly record music with fast speed.”

Now, one streaming music platform has taken the fight to popular stream rippers.

Using a flaw in Deezer’s API, popular software application Deezloader allows users to download their favorite tracks and playlists. A search engine embedded in the software would look for tracks stored in Deezer’s storage server. With just one click, users could download full albums and even custom playlists.

Available for PC, Mac, and Linux, the software description reads,

“When you have paid for the monthly subscription, Deezer would deliver the files to you. But, if not, Deezloader will download these encrypted sound tracks and decrypts it for your computer.”

The application also works for tracks and playlists on Spotify.

For over a year, Deezer has attempted to completely take down the software, but has only had varying degrees of success. Earlier this year, the French-based streaming platform shut down a dedicated Deezloader subreddit where people freely distributed the application. Now, the company has issued a DMCA to leading software development platform, GitHub.

The takedown notice sent to GitHub reads,

“The following projects… make available a hacked version of our Deezer application. We ask that you immediately take down the projects corresponding to the URLs below and all of the related forks by others members who have had access or even contributed to such projects.”

GitHub quickly responded to the DMCA takedown request. The platform took down Deezloader, DeezerDownload, and Deeze, including forks of these popular applications. Users who attempt to access these repositories will now see the following notice.

“Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown.”

Yet, while Deezer may have scored a temporary win, the move will not prevent these applications from actually working. As TorrentFreak notes, the stream ripping tools are readily available on torrent indexing websites and multiple forums. In fact, with the DMCA takedown request, Deezer may have inadvertently sparked interest in these applications.