Mp3skull

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Mp3skull was a website that indexed MP3 files and made them available for direct download. It was founded in 2010 and offered its users the ability to download unauthorized copies of music.

In 2013, MP3Skull was one of Alexa's top 500 websites. MP3Skull lost numerous Google search rankings after Google punished websites with copyrighted content. In February 2016, MP3Skull was successfully sued by RIAA and other music labels. MP3Skull switched between numerous other domains . The website finally went offline in October 2016.

Blockages and censorship

MP3Skull claimed to be following DMCA guidelines and deleting all reported copyrighted files. On April 17, 2015, a court order was issued against the operators of MP3Skull. The music companies involved fined $ 520 million and obtained a court order to confiscate any domain associated with the original MP3Skull website.

It was suspected that the court order was issued as a kind of back door for the music label to override SOPA and close other domains and websites. Similar lawsuits against Hotfile and IsoHunt resulted in the closure of both sites and compensation of $ 80 million and $ 110 million, respectively.

In October 2015, MP3Skull was named by the RIAA on the USTR as a notorious music piracy website. According to the RIAA, MP3Skull was the most visited MP3 website in the world at the time. By February 9, 2016, RIAA had requested the deletion of 1,769,414 URLs on mp3skull.com from Google's search results. RIAA explicitly mentioned the website both on their blog and on a public forum run by their CEO, Cary Sherman .

In early 2015, the website changed its main domain from mp3skull.com to mp3skull.to for the first time. Then numerous other domain changes took place, which were probably carried out due to the actions and ranking penalties made by Google against MP3Skull.

On February 24, 2016, a group of well-known RIAA labels won a trial that was filed on April 17, 2015. The labels had listed 148 tracks that were under their copyright and were demanding $ 950,000 in damages for each of those tracks. The charges were upheld by Marcia G. Cooke . In addition to the compensation, the RIAA label obtained an injunction to prevent the operators of MP3Skull from distributing other copyrighted music titles. The website has been offline since this decision.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Major Record Labels Use Lawsuit Against MP3Skull To Try To Backdoor In SOPA . In: Techdirt.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  2. ↑ Google's New Search Downranking Hits Torrent Sites Hard . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  3. ↑ Copyright Complaint Form . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  4. ↑ Major Record Labels Sue MP3Skull Over Mass Piracy . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  5. ↑ RIAA, back on anti-piracy warpath, sues song-linking site MP3skull . In: Arstechnica.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  6. ↑ RIAA seeks $ 22 million in damages from MP3Skull . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  7. ↑ RIAA Labels Want $ 22 Million Piracy Damages From MP3Skull . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  8. ↑ COMPLAINT FOR DAMAGES AND FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF (PDF) Accessed May 7, 2016.
  9. ↑ Hotfile Shuts Down and Takes User Files With It . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  10. ↑ isoHunt Shuts Down After $ 110 Million Settlement With The MPAA . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  11. ↑ MP3Skull - Free MP3 Download & YouTube Converter .
  12. ^ RIAA and MPAA Report Notorious Piracy Sites to US Government . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  13. ↑ a b Acting Assistant United States Trade Representative (AUSTR) for Intellectual Property and Innovation, Office of the United States Trade Representative. . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  14. ^ Copyright Removal Requests - Google Transparency Report . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  15. ↑ MP3Skull: A Site Dedicated To Ripping Off Music - RIAA . In: RIAA .
  16. ^ RIAA Wants Google to End Piracy "Whack-A-Mole" . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  17. ^ Arista Records LLC et al v. Monica Vasilenko and Does 1-10 (PDF) Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  18. ↑ a b RIAA Wins $ 22 Million Piracy Lawsuit Against MP3Skull . In: TorrentFreak.com . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  19. ^ Stuart Dredge: Music labels win $ 22.2m damages from MP3Skull - if they can find its owners . In: The Guardian .
  20. ^ Hugh McIntyre: Illegal Download Site MP3Skull Is Closing For Good . In: Forbes.com . February 26, 2016. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  21. ↑ RIAA gets $ 22M default judgment against "brazen and egregious" MP3 website . In: Ars Technica . Retrieved May 7, 2016.
  22. ^ RIAA Shuts Down Long-Running Piracy Site in Latest Court Win . In: Billboard . Retrieved May 7, 2016.