The world's largest stream ripping site, YouTube-mp3.org, was temporarily blocked by Google this past weekend but was eventually reinstated in the search engine's results listings. The site, however, still lacks functionality as users are unable to convert videos into music files.
YouTube-mp3 Not Functioning
We recently reported on the saga of YouTube-mp3.org, at one time the most used stream ripping website on the internet. Despite its popularity, the website had not been functioning since at least Oct. 13, instead issuing a message upon entry of any URL stating "There is some Maintenance going on. Please try again within the next hour." Most observers related the move to the recent lawsuit filed against the website by the major record labels in the U.S. under their Recording Industry Association Of America consortium.
Stream Ripping Explodes
The music industry has become increasingly concerned with the practice of stream ripping, which involves using sites such as YouTube-mp3.org to convert videos from YouTube and, in some cases, other sources such as SoundCloud into downloadable music files that can be kept in the user's music library indefinitely.
The practice has become so widespread that a full half of young web users reported having engaged in the process at least once, while 30 percent of all web users did the same. While the popularity of music streaming has been blamed for the recent precipitous drop in digital music downloads, stream ripping is considered to be another culprit.
YouTube-mp3 Disappears From Google Search Results
YouTube is, of course, owned by Google, and just this past weekend, YouTube-mp3 disappeared from Google's search results entirely, even when the name of the site was entered directly into Google's search box. Then the search results suddenly returned for the site, but it still remains non-functional, displaying the same error message.
Why this happened is still a mystery, though a message YouTube-mp3 has posted to users indicates that the site's extended lack of functionality is because Google has blocked its servers from YouTube access.
"Google is accusing us to threaten your safety and wanted us to close this service. If we wouldn't comply they threatened to sue us. Unfortunately Google has just blocked all of our servers from accessing YouTube so we had to disable all conversion functionality," the message reads in part.
Having blocked the servers and essentially shutting down the site temporarily, it stands to reason that Google might block the site from search results as well, but that would also be redundant given the site can't be used anyway. Alternative stream ripping sites such as TubeNinja and Anything2mp3 are still functioning as usual.
The legality of the practice of stream ripping in the United States is still undetermined. While the RIAA argues it violates copyright laws, the site and others argue it is merely the digital equivalent of recording music from the radio onto a cassette, which is considered legal.
