Today the Danish Rights Alliance won a blocking case involving the 9 most popular so-called ‘stream ripping services’ in Denmark. The services, which make it possible to illegally copy and store music from the internet, were ruled illegal and must be blocked by the Danish internet service providers.
Denmark has a history of blocking sites that infringe IP rights. Back in 2018, Rights Alliance was behind a blocking case against a telecommunications company for blocking a so-called stream ripper, where music from music videos is illegally ripped and stored. This case resulted in a historic ruling as Denmark became the first country in the world to block a stream ripping service. Five years later, the technology is still widely used to illegally download music from YouTube.
On Monday, March 13, 9 of the most popular stream ripping services were ruled illegal by the Court of Næstved. The 9 services had hundreds of thousands of visits from Danish IP addresses every month, and thus posed a major challenge to the rights holders in the music industry. The ruling means that Danish internet service providers must block the services so that they can no longer be accessed from Danish IP addresses.
The ruling shows that blocking remains an efficient and flexible tool that can curb several types of illegal content. Illegal downloading and stream ripping are examples, but also the distribution of illegal TV, literature, text, movies, and live events can be limited by blocking.
Blocking is an effective tool
Over the years, Rights Alliance has been in courts and has continuously received the court’s word that ISPs must block illegal services that offer access to illegal content. In the experience of Rights Alliance, blocking the illegal services contributes to an average 75 percent decrease in traffic to the services. This significantly reduces the extent of copyright infringements.
Blocking traffic to illegal services is not only a victory for the rights holders but also for the users of illegal services. Few people are aware of the risks they run when they access illegal sites, which are run by criminals who do not prioritize user safety. The risk of being affected by malware increases significantly when using illegal services, so the protection of rights goes hand in hand with user security online.