{"id":74050,"date":"2023-08-11T09:01:15","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=74050"},"modified":"2023-08-11T09:01:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T09:01:15","slug":"youtube-rippers-run-out-of-money-give-up-on-83m-riaa-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/?p=74050","title":{"rendered":"YouTube Rippers Run Out of Money, Give Up On $83m RIAA Legal Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sadTwo years ago, the RIAA secured a major victory in its piracy lawsuit against YouTube-rippers<\/a> FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com and their Russian operator Tofig Kurbanov. <\/p>\n

A Virginia federal court issued a default judgment<\/a> in favor of several prominent music companies after the defendant walked away from the lawsuit. <\/p>\n

According to the order, there is a clear need to deter the behavior of Kurbanov who failed to hand over evidence including server logs<\/a>. \u201cA less drastic sanction is unlikely to salvage this case,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

$82 million Damages Award?<\/h2>\n

Following this win, the RIAA asked for an injunction to stop the sites\u2019 worldwide stream-ripping activities and demanded $83 million in damages. Both of these requests were taken up in a report and recommendation<\/a> issued by Magistrate Judge Buchanan.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant\u2019s Websites caused the Plaintiffs to lose profits and streaming revenue because of the enormous internet traffic to and use of the Websites\u2019 stream-ripping functions,\u201d Judge Buchanan wrote. <\/p>\n

The recommendation was approved by U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton last year, securing a multi-million dollar win for the music companies. That same order also spelled the end of the stream-ripping sites, at least in theory. <\/p>\n

Appeal?<\/h2>\n

The Russian operator of FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com didn\u2019t give up immediately. Shortly after the million-dollar judgment came in he requested an appeal and last month the case was docketed<\/a> at the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.<\/p>\n

The filing suggested that Kurbanov would like to continue the fight but this week it became clear that won\u2019t be the case. On the contrary, the appeal was dismissed voluntarily, before it even started. <\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he parties hereby stipulate and agree that the above-captioned appeal is dismissed with prejudice. Each party shall bear its own costs. Defendant-Appellant is responsible for paying any Court fees that are due,\u201d the filing reads. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"appeal<\/center><\/p>\n

Money Ran Out<\/h2>\n

The voluntary dismissal doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the operator accepts the lower court\u2019s judgment. Instead, TorrentFreak is informed that he doesn\u2019t have the money to fund a proper challenge. <\/p>\n

Speaking with TorrentFreak, defense attorney Val Gurvits<\/a> explains that Mr. Kurbanov simply ran out of money. The lawyer still believes, however, that the District Court\u2019s decision was worth challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disappointing that a person who has never once set foot in the United States and who has only operated a website accessible anywhere in the world can be ordered to appear in a court half way around the world,\u201d Gurvits says. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, if he fails to do so \u2013 or simply can\u2019t afford to do so \u2013 that he can be hit with millions of dollars of damages even when there has been no evidence that the Plaintiffs actually suffered any damages as a result of his conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n

What Now?<\/h2>\n

Absent an appeal, the $83 million damages award in favor of the RIAA stands, although that might be hard to pay without funds. In addition, the court\u2019s order also prohibits Mr. Kurbanov from keeping FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com up and running. <\/p>\n

At the time of writing, both YouTube rippers are still accessible in most parts of the world but the site\u2019s operator previously decided to ban all U.S. traffic, which is still the case today. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"blocked\"<\/center><\/p>\n

TorrentFreak asked the RIAA whether it has any plans to ensure that the YouTube rippers comply with the court order but the music group prefers not to comment any further at this time. <\/p>\n

Mr. Kurbanov hasn\u2019t commented publicly on his decision or future plans but his attorney notes that the defense would have liked to take the appeal forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would have loved to be able to continue this fight on the merits, but unfortunately our client was unable to do so,\u201d Gurvits says.<\/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":"

Two years ago, the RIAA secured a major victory in its piracy lawsuit against YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com and their Russian operator Tofig Kurbanov. A Virginia federal court issued a default judgment in favor of several prominent music companies after the defendant walked away from the lawsuit. According to the order, there is a clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74050","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\/74050","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=74050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cryptocabaret.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}