The Danish Rights Alliance announced it won a blocking case that included the nine most popular ‘stream ripping services’ in Denmark. Stream ripping was judged illegal on March 13 by a court in Næstved and must therefore be blocked by Danish Internet providers.
Despite a landmark 2018 court ruling in which Denmark became the first country to block a stream ripping service, that technology has remained widely used to illegally download music from YouTube. Stream rippers enable users to illegally extract the audio from music videos and save it locally.
The nine services have had several hundreds of thousands of visits from Danish IP addresses every month, representing a major challenge for rights holders in the music industry. The ruling means that the Danish internet providers must block the services, so that they can no longer be accessed from Danish IP addresses.
Increased efforts
Earlier in March, the Rights Alliance announced that it had hired a new lawyer with copyright, trademark and design rights expertise; as part of a broader effort to reduce consumption of illegal content on social media that it says has been on the rise. Lasse Hebsgaard will aid in the development of legal actions and collaboration with telecommunications companies.
Original news releases:
9 illegal music services are blocked by Danish internet providers. News release. March 13, 2023. Danish Rights Alliance
Danish Rights Alliance is gearing up for enforcement. News release. March 2, 2023. Danish Rights Alliance
Why it matters
The Rights Alliance believes that the current ruling affirms blocking to be an effective and flexible tool against illegal distribution across different types of content, including illegal downloads and stream ripping, illegal TV, literature, text, films and live events.
The new ruling may act as a stronger deterrent.
