IFPI reports that it, together with its National Group in Germany, BVMI, have managed a successful action against the individual hosting the stream ripping software YouTube-DL. The Hamburg Regional Court has issued an injunction requiring the individual to stop hosting the software, which allows users to download content directly from YouTube, thereby circumventing YouTube’s technical protection measures applied to protect licensed streamed content from unauthorised downloading.

IFPI explains that stream ripping is the illegal practice of creating a downloadable file from content that is legally available to stream online. It is the most prevalent form of online music copyright infringement.  Based on a survey carried out last year, 27% of people globally used stream ripping sites as a way to illegally download music. This figure increased to 40% amongst 16- to 24-year-olds. Legal actions targeting stream ripping services have been successful against other sites in Germany as well as in various other jurisdictions, including in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, France, India, Italy, Spain, Malaysia, Peru and the UK. To read IFPI’s press release in full, click here.