One of those accused of copyright fraud on YouTube in 2021 was sentenced to 70 months in prison by the United States Justice after applying strikes related to the Content ID mechanism. Jose Teran, of Scottsdale, Arizona, is charged with wire fraud and money laundering, having signed an agreement in February of this year.
According to the prosecution, the defendant took advantage of a loophole in the music copyright identification system to claim, through his company called MediaMuv, the rights to 50,000 audio tracks that did not yet belong to any studio, with which the company began to profit from the monetization of these contents used by creators on the platform.
One of the songs earned the duo more than US$ 100,000, about R$ 477,000 in direct conversion, in royalties paid by YouTube for the exhibition and use of the track on the social network. The defrauded amount was used to pay for a luxurious lifestyle, including the purchase of assets such as a mansion valued at US$ 550,000, a Tesla, a BMW hybrid and jewelry.
Webster Batista Fernandez, the other member of the duo, pleaded guilty last year. He has yet to be sentenced, however, the trial is expected to take place in August. These judgments are expected to discourage others from trying to bypass Content ID’s payment system.
