Popular YouTube Stream-Ripping Site Shut Down

If you rip YouTube streams to MP3, you probably know about (and maybe have used) YouTube-MP.org. The site is insanely popular with something like 60 million users a month–or at least it had those many.

A group of record labels led by the RIAA took YouTube-MP3.org (pronounced “YouTube to MP3,” by the way) to court last year, saying that the site facilitated piracy. That group has won. The site is being shut down. From TorrentFreak:

Today, a year later, both parties have settled their differences. While there haven’t been many updates in the court docket, a recent filing states that both parties have agreed to a settlement.

The details of the deal are not public, but YouTube-MP3 is willing to take all the blame. In a proposed final judgment, both parties ask the court to rule in favor of the labels on all counts of the complaint. In addition, the site’s owner Philip Matesanz agreed to pay a settlement amount.

Good for the RIAA, but it’s probably just a case of Whack-O-Mole. A quick search will turn up plenty of other sites that do the same sort of thing. Even though streaming has squished a lot of piracy, there are always those who want to have physical custody of music files for free