Sony, Atlantic, Warner Bros. team to sue YouTube music pirates
The three join other music labels in seeking massive damages from a site that lets its users download songs they hear on YouTube.
Music labels from multiple countries are taking on a major piracy site in an LA court. Fourteen labels are suing YouTube-mp3.org, a website based in Germany that lets users download songs they find on YouTube.
Instead of just streaming the music legally on YouTube, users get a permanent file they can listen to anywhere for free, cheating the music companies out of royalties.
The stream-ripping site supposedly has more than 60 million users every month, and the music group will sue for $150,000 for every incident of piracy.
YouTube isn't associated with the ripping site. The company issued the following statement, "Our Terms of Service prohibit the downloading, or copying of videos on YouTube without explicit consent from the copyright holder. Once notified of an infringing tool, or service that violates our Terms of Service, we take action."
Neither Youtube-MP3 or Philip Matesanz -- the person behind the site -- responded to CNET's request for comment.