{"id":51971,"date":"2020-11-03T09:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T09:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=51971"},"modified":"2020-11-03T09:01:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-03T09:01:34","slug":"us-govts-pirate-site-list-doesnt-prove-anything-youtube-rippers-tell-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=51971","title":{"rendered":"US Govt\u2019s Pirate Site List Doesn\u2019t Prove Anything, YouTube Rippers Tell Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"RIAA\u2019s takedown request<\/a>, targeting the open source stream-ripper software youtube-dl, generated a lot of media interest. However, it\u2019s just one of the many YouTube-ripping disputes. <\/p>\n

Over the past two years, for example, the operator of FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com has been fighting several record labels<\/a> in US courts.<\/p>\n

For now, this battle has been limited to jurisdiction questions. The operator of the site, Tofig Kurbanov, is from Russia and before the court can consider any copyright infringement claims, it has to decide whether it has jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

After a district court ruling in Kurbanov\u2019s favor<\/a> and an appeals court judgment that reversed it<\/a>, the Supreme Court was recently asked to consider the case<\/a>. This means that a final verdict could be years away. <\/p>\n

Record Labels Want Case to Continue<\/h2>\n

The record labels are not happy with this, especially because the site operator managed to put the district court case on hold in the meantime. This is why they asked the court to reconsider its \u2018stay\u2019 order and continue the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stay order should stay discovery only to the extent necessary to allow the Court to resolve the jurisdictional issue as required by the Fourth Circuit on remand,\u201d the record labels write, noting that the court\u2019s decision was an \u201cerror of law\u201d.<\/p>\n

The stream ripper\u2019s legal team disagreed and responded with a motion of its own, opposing the label\u2019s arguments. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis Court was well within its rights to issue a stay of proceedings pending the resolution of Mr. Kurbanov\u2019s cert petition. This Court\u2019s order was not an \u2018error of law\u2019 at all,\u201d they counter. <\/p>\n

USTR\u2019s Notorious Market List<\/h2>\n

While this is mostly a battle over non-copyright issues, the discussion over potential injuries to the record labels raised our interest. Specifically, the mentions of the United States Trade Representative\u2019s Notorious Markets report. <\/p>\n

This annual list is an overview of alleged pirate sites<\/a> that are reported to the US Government by copyright holders, including the RIAA, which represents the major record labels. The same labels are now using this report as evidence. <\/p>\n

\u201c[A]s the popularity of Defendant\u2019s unlawful sites has grown, they have caught the attention of the United States government,\u201d the music companies write.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I]n its annual report on Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, the U.S. Trade Representative named Defendant\u2019s FLVTO website as \u2018continu[ing] to threaten legitimate streaming audio and video services\u2019 and copyright owners. Defendant\u2019s piracy causes Plaintiffs substantial harm.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

From the label\u2019s filing<\/strong><\/center>
\"labels<\/center><\/p>\n

It is not unique for copyright holders to bring up the USTR report, which is often used for lobbying purposes. However, Kurbanov\u2019s legal team notes that \u2018evidence\u2019 in this manner is misleading. <\/p>\n

Misleading Evidence<\/h2>\n

\u201cThis is \u2013 to put it mildly \u2013 highly misleading. As Plaintiffs are well-aware, the process by which entities get named in the government\u2019s report is by \u2018nomination,\u2019 primarily from self-interested industry groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The defense lawyers don\u2019t dispute that FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com were in the report. However, they inform the court that they were listed because copyright holders called them out<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And as the USTR report explicitly states, being listed does not constitute a legal finding of a violation, including copyright infringement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Plaintiffs have not told this Court is that the Websites at issue here were \u2018nominated\u2019 for inclusion in the report by Plaintiffs\u2019 own lobbying arm,\u201d Kusbanov\u2019s team informs the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, Plaintiffs themselves (through their lobbying arm), managed to get the Websites included in the government report and now point to the same report as \u2018proof\u2019 that the Websites \u2018have caught the attention of the United States Government\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

The back and forth over the USTR report is worth highlighting but, for the matter at hand, it\u2019s only a minor issue. The court didn\u2019t refer back to it in its final decision either.<\/p>\n

After reading the arguments from both sides, the Federal Court in Virginia issued a one-page order rejecting the record labels\u2019 request, simply stating that the previous order to stay the case was correctly decided. <\/p>\n

\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n

A copy of the record labels\u2019 request for reconsideration is available here (pdf)<\/a>, Kurbanov\u2019s response here (pdf)<\/a>, and a copy of the final order from US District Court Judge Claude Hilton here (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n

From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n

Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RIAA\u2019s takedown request, targeting the open source stream-ripper software youtube-dl, generated a lot of media interest. However, it\u2019s just one of the many YouTube-ripping disputes. Over the past two years, for example, the operator of FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com has been fighting several record labels in US courts. For now, this battle has been limited to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-torrent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}