Appeals Court Revives Record Labels’ Lawsuit Against YouTube Rippers

[Matrix]

 

The copyright infringement case between several major record labels and the YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com is back on. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court's ruling, which dismissed the case for a lack of jurisdiction. The record labels will celebrate this as a win but the legal battle is far from over.

 

 

In 2018, a group of prominent record labels sued two very popular YouTube rippers, FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com.

 

The labels, including Universal, Warner Bros, and Sony, accused the sites of copyright infringement and hoped to shut them down quickly. But that didn’t go as planned.

 

The Russian operator of the sites, Tofig Kurbanov, fought back with a motion to dismiss. He argued that the Virginia federal court lacked personal jurisdiction as he operated the sites from abroad and didn’t target or interact with US users.

 

The District Court agreed with this assessment. In a verdict released early last year, Judge Claude M.

 

Hilton dismissed the case. The court carefully reviewed how the sites operated and found no evidence that they purposefully targeted either Virginia or the United States.

 

The record labels and the RIAA were disappointed with the outcome and swiftly announced an appeal.

Appeals Court Reverses the Dismissal

Today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decided on the matter. In a unanimous decision, it reversed the District Court’s ruling. This means that the motion to dismiss is off the table and that the case will be revived.

 

The Fourth Circuit Court found that there are more than sufficient facts to conclude that Kurbanov purposefully conducted business in the US, specifically, the state of Virginia. That the site doesn’t charge users is not seen as being crucial.

 

“To start, his contacts with Virginia are plentiful. In the relevant period, between October 2017 and September 2018, more than half a million unique visitors went to the Websites, totaling nearly 1.5 million visits. These visits made Virginia one of the most popular states in terms of unique visitors as well as number of visits,” the Appeals Court notes.

 

“In addition to the volume of visitors, we also find the nature of the repeated interaction between the Websites and visitors to be a commercial relationship,” the order adds, stressing that the “mere absence of a monetary exchange does not automatically imply a non-commercial relationship.”

 

On top of that, the decision also weighs in the fact that the sites have a registered DMCA agent, worked with US-based advertisers, and used US-based servers and domain registrars at some point.

 

Contrary to the District Court, the Appeals Court also finds that FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com targeted Virginia users, as the websites were globally accessible. No attempts were made to block Virginia visitors while the site did profit from the data that was harvested from these people.

 

“In sum, we conclude Appellants’ copyright infringement claims arise out of Kurbanov’s activities directed at Virginia,” the Court concludes.

 

The result of the ruling is that the District Court dismissal is off the table, so the lawsuit at the lower court can continue. This doesn’t mean that Kurbanov has lost that case though, but he will possibly have to defend himself and his sites against the record labels’ copyright infringement claims.

 

Before that happens, the District Court will first have to reconsider the jurisdiction challenges in full. In its first decision on the motion to dismiss, it chose not to conduct a “reasonability test” because the other arguments were sufficient to warrant a dismissal. This has now changed.

‘A Dangerous Precedent’

The record labels will be pleased with this decision but according to Kurbanov and his legal team, it sets a dangerous precedent. Counsel Evan Fray-Witzer informs us that if this ruling stands, it will have a broad impact on foreign site operators.

 

“The idea that a website operator could be subject to personal jurisdiction because the site has a DMCA agent would be a horrible precedent if allowed to stand: all it will mean is that foreign website operators will forgo having a DMCA agent, something that is beneficial to content producers,” Fray-Witzer says.

 

“If Mr. Kurbanov – who has never once visited the United States – can be hauled into a U.S. Court simply because he created a website that turned out to be popular in the U.S., then any American who creates a website can expect to be subject to personal jurisdiction in China, Russia, and every other country in the world.”

 

Kurbanov and his legal team are still considering their options at this time but they don’t expect this to be the end of the jurisdictional battle, where further appeals are still possible.

 

A copy of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision is available here (pdf).

 

  Source

[steven36]

12 hours ago, Mach1 said:

“The idea that a website operator could be subject to personal jurisdiction because the site has a DMCA agent would be a horrible precedent if allowed to stand: all it will mean is that foreign website operators will forgo having a DMCA agent, something that is beneficial to content producers,” Fray-Witzer says.

Foreign websites have always been subject to DMCA  expect for ones  like TPB that hide  there server  behind a VPN  so they don't get raided ,  Just ASK  the guy who ran KAT who got  arrested  in Poland .

 

  Just like the cloud storage   i use don't follow DMCA they got  there main server raided  for it and  they recovered  there  site  now hide it like  TPB  do .   Once  a file gets a DMCA   most all the big cloud storage  providers most sites are non USA  owned  delete   most copies  from there service  when reported  .  They  are loop holes  were you can get around DMCA  just like one pirate site  site i know   own  there own filehost  they follow DMCA  but since they no  stay down law   they just re upload   it and post a new link  as soon as its deleted they  been playing cat and mouse  with  Movie and TV  rights owners for years by reuploading the file 20 times  tell they get tired  and go away  and stop reporting the file ,

 

Another  method is  hideing the file  behind link protect sites  , but  many sites just dont care and  dont ever bother to reupload once the links is dead .  Youtube  ripper sites are  a scam anyway they plenty  user scripts , addons  , and  software you can install  to get the audio/video from YouTube  they not took the software  Tube rippers to court  in years .

 

Sites will just have to stop following DMCA  if no agent in  place, They should of never  had been following laws that not been made by there country no how  .The heck with international laws.   it don't protect them no how unless your a USA  Big Tech owned  and have the money to fight  them off  it's just a false sense of security at best  . KAT  followed  DMCA  they got shut down TPB  don't  they hide there server  and they still going . I think its great  if the courts cause it  to become harder to track down  pirate content . 

 

Sites  that  exploit the loopholes in DMCA are OK  most of there links still  be live  but they charge  you to use  there providers  because it  takes lots of resources  to do it . Most also provide  free mirrors to others  sites that  go dead  pretty fast  . I been downloading so long i know how  to get there  paid service links  for  free. But still it's not fool proof you  will run into  many dead links. Sites that follow DMCA  and never reupload just  suck  and the best sites that are most dependable are the ones that don't follow DMCA  that hide there server or  use another way  they just don't delete there  files at all , some even block the USA  and they ways for USA users to download anyway from them.  

 

But the fact  still remains  DMCA don't really protect  foreign sites because every year  they more  sites that do follow DMCA  on the USA and now EU  Top Pirate Sites and Other ‘Notorious Markets’ list  than don't follow it . Openload   and many other closed down  sites followed DMCA and deleted  files  like crazy and in the end  they  just got closed down .

[zanderthunder]

On 6/27/2020 at 6:08 AM, Mach1 said:

The record labels will be pleased with this decision but according to Kurbanov and his legal team, it sets a dangerous precedent. Counsel Evan Fray-Witzer informs us that if this ruling stands, it will have a broad impact on foreign site operators.

 

“The idea that a website operator could be subject to personal jurisdiction because the site has a DMCA agent would be a horrible precedent if allowed to stand: all it will mean is that foreign website operators will forgo having a DMCA agent, something that is beneficial to content producers,” Fray-Witzer says.

 

“If Mr. Kurbanov – who has never once visited the United States – can be hauled into a U.S. Court simply because he created a website that turned out to be popular in the U.S., then any American who creates a website can expect to be subject to personal jurisdiction in China, Russia, and every other country in the world.”

 

Surely what US is doing will jeopardize the diplomatic relationship between other countries.

I mean, Kurbanov is a Russian citizen and he is subjected to Russian laws not US laws since he's never step into US soil and even never doing any felony in US. Besides, there are countries who have diplomatic ties but don't have extradition treaties and Russia is one of them. So pushing DMCA laws to other countries without an agreement (trade agreement, for example) between the countries involved is simply absurd. The least they can do, is pushing Russian lawmakers to charge him under Russian laws, but won't be likely since relations between US and Russia are getting sour.
 

On 6/27/2020 at 6:08 AM, Mach1 said:

He argued that the Virginia federal court lacked personal jurisdiction as he operated the sites from abroad and didn’t target or interact with US users.

 

And his point is correct, then what Appeal Court is doing is simply absurd because the reasoning by the Appeal Court is not convincing enough to accuse him, and a breach of his country's sovereignty as well.

One more example, few Indonesian hackers was arrested in Surabaya by Indonesian Police Force after FBI alerted the Indonesian cops regarding hacking cases. As the hackers are Indonesian citizens, the only thing that FBI can do is letting the Indonesian Police Force to prosecute them under Indonesian laws. This should be right way of dealing cybercrime, including piracy. Not pushing US laws on them because they are bounded to Indonesian laws when they are in Indonesia all the time. After all, the extradition treaty only allows US citizens/non-US citizens that committed felony in US soil to be extradited, nothing else.
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/03/14/jakarta-police-arrest-hackers-after-fbi-report.html

In other words, the US should respect the sovereignty of other countries first before even pushing their DMCA laws.