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Yout owner declines deal proposed by Brazilian prosecutors
By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 7 June 2022
The operator of Yout has knocked back a deal made by prosecutors in Brazil who have filed a criminal complaint in relation to the stream-ripping site. Under the deal Johnathan Nader would have had to block access to his site to Brazilian users, log attempts to access the site from within the country and pay about $400,000.
Whereas many stream-ripping sites, when targeted with legal action from copyright owners, either go offline or just ignore the legal letters and litigation, Nader has generally fought back, insisting that his website does not in itself infringe copyright. Indeed, in the US, it was Yout that sued the record industry, not the other way round.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Nader has been battling action taken by the country’s Public Prosecutor’s Office, which started investigating various stream-ripping operations following a complaint by music industry trade group APDIF. A 180 day web-block order went into effect at the start of that investigation. Yout initially managed to get the web-blocks lifted once those 180 days were up, but then the PPO filed its criminal complaint against the site, and a new web-block went into effect.
According to Torrentfreak, the PPO has since been negotiating with Nader to see if he would agree to various conditions in order to address that complaint. If he was found guilty of criminal copyright infringement, he could face jail time in Brazil. Although, of course, enforcing a jail term would involve getting Nader to Brazil, which would be a tricky process, which is presumably why the PPO would prefer a settlement.
However, it seems, Nader is not so keen on shutting down his website in Brazil, monitoring and reporting on those who then still try to access it from within the country, and handing over $400,000 in cash. Torrentfreak reports that the proposed deal was discussed and then formally declined by the Yout side at a hearing last week.
It remains to be seen how the PPO’s investigation now proceeds.
