US labels see case against stream-ripping sites dismissed

There have been some notable victories in music rightsholders’ campaign against ‘stream-ripping’ sites that help people turn YouTube videos into downloadable MP3 files. This week, though, they encountered a setback, as a US District Court judge dismissed a group of US labels’ lawsuit against the Russian operator of stream-ripping sites FLVTO and 2conv. The issue was whether the operator could stand trial in the US, and the judge agreed that there was no jurisdiction – even though the sites do have some users in the US. “As the Websites are semi-interactive, the interactions with the users are non-commercial, and there were no other acts by the Defendant that would demonstrate purposeful targeting, the Court finds that Defendant did not purposefully avail himself of the benefits and protections of either Virginia or the United States,” is the key part of the judge’s ruling. The labels had argued that nearly 10% of the site’s traffic had come from the US.

Source: Music Ally