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Stream ripping at the center of another piracy report

Stream ripping has been at the forefront of music piracy for a few years now, and it continues to be a concern for the industry. The practice was a focus in the 2017 Notorious Markets List from the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The report has placed a focus on digital piracy in recent years, and stream ripping was the focus in the 2016 edition. It remains a top concern in the 2017 version.

“Though circumstances exist where stream ripping could be lawful, such as if the content were licensed for that purpose and the conversion were permitted under the legitimate service’s terms of use, the operations of many unauthorized stream ripping sites reportedly continue to contribute overwhelmingly to copyright infringement,” the report reads.

Several other music industry groups have raised similar concerns about the practice. Over the last two years, reports from the IFPI, Muso, and PRS for Music pointed to stream ripping as a growing piracy practice posing a threat to the sector. Although stream ripping has been widely criticized, the Electronic Frontier Foundation did issue a cautionary statement about applying the term too broadly.

Anna Washenko

3 Comments

  1. In other news, people are actually recording television shows and movies! In addition, they are copying and scanning text, graphics, images. Even software is getting copied, along with data. Some even claim computers are simply copying devices for data and that networks are designed to facilitate this copying!

    Some might even observe there are fees on the media to which this media is copied, seemingly monetizing and encouraging the behavior. Say it ain’t so!

    How will creativity survive? After hundreds of years of copying, this creativity is no doubt coming to an end. Or is copying an element in creativity? Hmmmm.

  2. The greed never ends in the US.
    Recording/copying has been around forever. Cassettes to record the radio for example.
    Just stop! Stop making excuses for the record industries LACK of seeing where technology has been going. Now that you can’t build $19 extra dollars into selling an album with only a single hit on it.
    So sick of this!

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