Did you know that music uploaded by others on YouTube can be claimed as your own and royalties can be collected? It turned out that the copyrights of many music artists have been stolen on YouTube for years in this way.
23 million dollar royalty scam!
It all starts with the media company MediaMuv, founded by Jose “Chenel” Medina Teran and Webster Batista. Claiming to own the rights to various Latin music songs and compositions, the company claims to own more than 50,000 copyrights in total since 2017.
To claim these royalties and collect royalties through YouTube’s Content ID system, MediaMuv had to partner with AdRev, a third-party company that has access to YouTube’s CMS and Content ID tools and helps artists manage their digital copyrights.
It is stated that MediaMuv created forged documents to prove that the songs belong to them and sent these documents to AdRev. From now on, AdRev not only helped MediaMuv collect royalties, but also gave Terana and Batista direct access to YouTube’s CMS so they could claim royalties themselves.
Teran and Batista’s four-year copyright heist came to light late last year after an investigation from the IRS. The duo faces a total of 30 charges of conspiracy, electronic fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
With his trial in November, Teran pleads not guilty. On the other hand, Batista cooperated on the investigation. As a result, Batista shared with the authorities the details of how they implemented their plans. While the outcome of the trial is eagerly awaited, it is stated that the size of the fraud has reached 23 million dollars.
It is stated that many content creators have experienced similar incidents like this. YouTube’s Content ID system, which aims to help content creators, has become widely used by malicious people to monetize content that does not belong to them. The best example of this was MediaMuv’s $23 million copyright fraud.
So what do you think about this copyright fraud on YouTube? You can share your views with us in the comments section.
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