Photo Credit: CDD20
The Italian Federation Against Musical and Multimedia Piracy (FPM) says it has scored an important win in blocking six well-known stream ripping sites in Italy.
The FPM notified the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority (AGCOM) on behalf of record companies and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The outcome of these notifications includes the shutdown of six sites and their mobile domains for a total of 11 resources taken offline. These websites had an average of three million accesses only from Italy.
Stream ripping is the most common form of music piracy, accounting for around 30% of all musical piracy in Italy. Italian courts confirmed the practice of stream ripping is illegal in 2019, giving AGCOM the tools it needs to tackle copyright violations within the country. With an average of 10 million accesses from Italy per month, the illegal practice grew by 10% in the first quarter of 2024. The rapid growth of stream ripping led to the FPM notifications to AGCOM, which took action against the six stream ripping sites.
Targeted sites in this action include most stream ripping sites under the YTMP3 brand, including ytmp3.nu, lumieremusic.net, ytmp3.im, projectspark.ca, downmp3.yt, y2meta.app, x2mate.com, ytmp3.nu, and yt5.io.
“We are proud of the result obtained by FPM thanks to the collaboration of AGCOM,” adds Luca Vespignani, General Secretary of FPM and CEO of DcP. “The technological efforts of our team meet the application of the AGCOM Regulation whose results have a clear impact on illegal access to music in Italy.”
From 2017 to 2021, media piracy was on the decline in the EU. However, the trend reversed in 2022 an digital piracy increased by 3.3%. That growth in piracy can mainly be attributed to TV piracy (48%), but other types of pirated content include publications (28%), films (11%), software (7%), and music (6%).
The rise in piracy across the EU can be attributed to streaming piracy, with 58% occurring via streaming and only 32% of piracy attributed to downloads. Piracy of live sporting events also rose sharply between 2021 and 2022—seeing a 30% increase that year.
