The operator of popular stream-ripping service Yout faces up to four years in a Brazilian prison after a judge refused to dismiss criminal copyright charges against him, setting up a high-stakes August hearing. The music industry will be following the case closely to see if the criminal charges stick, given most stream-ripping cases to date have been civil lawsuits filed by copyright owners.
Johnathan Nader, the American owner of Yout, had sought to kill the case before it came to trial, based on the argument that Brazilian prosecutors had failed to show “just cause” and had so far provided “insufficient evidence”.
However, in a recent judgement, Judge Eva Lobo Chaib Dias Jorge said that while Nader’s lawyers presented “strong arguments” when seeking to have the criminal case against their client dismissed, the prosecutors have met the requirements to move forward with criminal proceedings.
Nader has had various runs ins with the music industry as the operator of Yout. Which isn’t surprising, given that stream-ripping, where websites allow people to download permanent copies of temporary streams, has been a top piracy gripe of music companies for quite some time.
The Yout operator’s highest profile dispute with the music industry came about after he sued the Recording Industry Association Of America in the US courts, in response to the trade group trying to get his website de-listed from the Google search engine.
However, the legal proceedings in Brazil are arguably more serious, because in this case Nader is accused of criminal copyright infringement, meaning - in theory at least - if he loses he could face up to four years in prison. Copyright infringement is sometimes a criminal matter, though quite when there are grounds for a criminal prosecution differs from country to country.
In both the civil and criminal cases, Nader insists that Yout does not infringe copyright, because it doesn’t directly host or copy any copyright protected material. However, in the Brazilian case, prosecutors argue that, by providing a stream-ripping service, Nader is making copyright protected works available, and is therefore infringing the ‘making available right’ of copyright owners.
The Brazilian case has been rumbling on for a number of years now. According to Torrentfreak, prosecutors previously offered Nader a deal which would have involved him blocking Brazilians from accessing his service, sharing information with the authorities about people trying to access his site from Brazil, and paying a fine in the region of $400,000.
However, Nader decided to fight the case through the courts, with his legal team seeking to have the whole thing dismissed based on the argument that prosecutors had failed to demonstrate “just cause” and had so far provided “insufficient evidence”. But the judge disagreed, concluding that prosecutors had provided sufficient documentation for this stage of the proceedings.
This initial phase of the criminal case, the judge explains in his judgement, does not involve “exhaustive” evidentiary consideration, and “the thesis of lack of just cause is not supported by the information in the case file” which, he adds, “indicate the plausibility of the accusation”.
As a result, the criminal case will now move forward with a hearing due to take place in August, during which a music industry representative is expected to testify. US-based Nader will not need to attend in person, with a virtual hearing planned.