YouTube has not only been paying close attention to stream-ripping services, but they are now putting their foot down, Tubeninja is the latest under fire….
YouTube has given TubeNinja an ultimatum – either they stop all of their illegal activity or face legal action.
YouTube is by far the biggest online video platform and the world’s largest music source, with over a billion users. But, it hasn’t stopped them from being at the front-and-centre of complaints from rights holders over low royalty payments and high-levels of copyright infringed content on the platform, for which they blame YouTube for not doing enough to combat this issue.
Music video’s are becoming increasingly easier to be downloaded from YouTube by external sites and this has disgruntled artists and labels. So, to keep copyright holders happy, YouTube is taking action and are standing up to these sites by threatening them with legal action. YouTube’s first step was to start contacting third-party sites and send them shut-down notices – This is when TubeNinja got hit with a threat stating that if they do not stop what they are doing it ”may result in legal consequences.”
YouTube say that Tubeninja violates the ToS – terms of service, of both the site and the API, which is prohibited. But, despite fierce threats it doesn’t seem to be having much effect on the owner of TubeNinja who says that they ”find it hard to believe that there is any legal case at all”, considering other services like ”Savefrom, Keepvid, clipconverter etc have been around since 2008”.
At this stage it’s just one big threat, and it’s not the first time YouTube have threatened legal action against download services. In 2012, there was a battle with Youtube-mp3.org who was at the brunt of a similar threat from YouTube, but to this day they are still operating.
So, does YouTube actually have a case?
YouTube can make all the threats they want, but if there is no positive outcome then there is absolutely no point in the threats, as they simply serve no purpose. The owner of Tubeninja does not at all seem worried about the threats and have openly doubted any case that YouTube may have against him and his site.
So, if YouTube knows that there is no case, is this just a way to show content owners and copyright holders that they are fighting for their rights?
The news most certainly comes at a convenient time – a time that Google-owned YouTube has been under fire from all angles regarding its flawed Content ID system that simply doesn’t work effectively with a notoriously ineffective dispute process. I guess only time will tell if these are empty threats or if YouTube will come full force with some serious consequences.
The post YouTuve Vs Tubeninja, Who Will Win The War? appeared first on Digital Music News.