US Court orders Russian operator of stream-ripping services to preserve and produce server data

By Emmanuel Legrand

The District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has granted a motion filed by Universal Music Group asking the court to order the Russian operator of two YouTube stream-ripping services to preserve data related to the access by users of pirated content.

  The motion stated that Defendant Tofig Kurbanov, owner and operator of stream-ripping services www.FLVTO.biz and www.2conv.com, had engaged in and facilitated copyright infringement "at a staggering scale."

  The motion requested that the Court ordered Kurbanov "to preserve and produce computer server data from Defendant’s websites." The data is "core evidence that will demonstrate the rampant infringement taking place by virtue of Defendant’s illegal stream-ripping activities that are the subject of this lawsuit."

Unduly burdensome

  In the motion, UMG argued that privacy concerns should not come into play since it only seeks from Defendant documents "concerning each subsequent use, copying, storage, distribution, or other disposition of the audio file, including the date and time of download of the audio file and the geographic location (i.e., state) of the User,” and not the identity or the IP address of the users.

  Kurbanov also said that the requests were "overbroad and unduly burdensome" which UMG brushed out by saying that the information "is plainly relevant to the core claims and defenses in this case, including the scope and extent of infringement, Defendant’s financial benefit from infringement, and Defendant’s affirmative defense that Defendant’s Websites have significant non-infringing uses."

  In its motion, UMG argued that the preservation order "is necessary," explaining that without an order, Defendant "will continue to destroy key server data." 

Distributing infringing files

  The motion added: "Defendant’s refusal to preserve and produce the data irreparably prejudices Plaintiffs’ ability to prepare their case for adjudication. At all pertinent times, Defendant provides a service for stream-ripping, directed toward distributing infringing music files, most of which are owned by Plaintiffs."

  It continued: "The data sought is compelling evidence of Defendant’s infringement and other unlawful acts—evidence of the actual usage of Defendant’s service. The server data would identify each of Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works and how often they have been stream-ripped and infringed, which is key evidence in proving liability and damages."

  The judge granted Plaintiffs' motion to compel preservation and production of web server data.

  TorrentFreak said it reached out to Kurbanov’s legal team asking for a comment on but did not hear back from them.