The music industry achieves further legal success in the dispute over the website youtube-dl.org and the YouTube-DL program library for MP3 downloads that was once associated with it: The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (OLG) rejects the appeal of the responsible The host provider is Uberspace. The Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) announced this on Tuesday. The High Authority thus confirmed the contested decision of the Hamburg Regional Court. At the end of March 2023, it decided that the Mainz company was no longer allowed to host youtube-dl.org. This forced the defendant to stop the offer. UberSpace complied with this requirement in August 2023 after the plaintiffs paid the required deposit of 20,000 euros.
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The German branches of three major international labels Universal Music, Warner Music Group and Sony Entertainment sued Uberspace in early 2022 over hosting the site. Essentially, they argued: The linked software tools allow countless stream ripping services to download music from licensed platforms like YouTube, bypassing technical security measures – and therefore illegally. UberSpace also accepts payments for open source projects.
OLG has now also confirmed that Uberspace boss Jonas Pasch must refrain from helping third parties circumvent “effective technical protective measures” of sound recordings by artists Mia, Vincent Weiss and Robin Schulz represented by the label. The lower court also essentially observed that Paasche is obliged to pay compensation for unauthorized downloads through the use of YouTube-DL if users download the software through the controversial website. He acknowledged that the program was primarily used to download content on YouTube, where a technical device called a “rolling cipher” was used to make such downloads more difficult or prevent them.
Threat to freedom of expression and information
René Houreau, managing director of legal and political affairs at the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI), sees the OLG’s decision as “another judicial clarification and warning”. Hosting companies should not rely on the fact that they can “simply avoid liability.”
The Society for Freedom Rights (GFF) supported Uberspace’s appeal against the regional court’s decision. He talked about another attempt by the music industry to illegalize legitimate online activities like download tools under the pretext of copyright. GFF argued that the download tool would not circumvent any effective copy protection measures. There are countless people and organizations that rely on tools like YouTube-DL for their work – for example for journalistic purposes, to preserve evidence or for creative techniques. The regional court also ignored the principle that host providers are only liable after warning when there is a “clear violation of the law”. Ultimately, freedom of expression and information is at risk when providers block content on demand.
Further legal action is still pending
Pasche told TorrentFreak Disappointed with OLG’s decisionThe Higher Regional Court did not allow the appeal. However, UberSpace may challenge this announcement with a complaint.
The controversial website actually only serves as a business card for the YouTube-DL program library, which has been in controversy for years: it offered a link to its download and further development via the source code hosting platform GitHub. of. With YouTube-DL, users can download videos or their audio tracks from YouTube and other video sharing platforms as MP3s. For example, you can watch videos offline, extract songs from videos, and turn shows into audio podcasts to take with you.
youtubedl is Still available on GitHubwhere there is even one your website Searches for it. The US Music Industry Association (RIAA) initially blocked the library there in autumn 2020 on the basis of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Following the protest, the Microsoft-owned platform reinstated the directory as there was no apparent violation of the DMCA.
(MKI)
