Security News > 2021 > December > Feds charge two men with claiming ownership of others' songs to steal YouTube royalty payments

The US Attorney's Office of Arizona on Wednesday announced the indictment of two men on charges that they defrauded musicians and associated companies by claiming more than $20m in royalty payments for songs played on YouTube.

"In short, Batista and Teran, as individuals and through various entities that they operate and control, fraudulently claimed to have the legal rights to monetize a music library of more than 50,000 songs," the indictment [PDF] alleges.

The government claims that around April, 2017, two men, through their company MediaMuv, LLC, entered into a contract with A.R., which administers and distributes YouTube royalty payments, claiming to control a 50,000 song catalog of music.

The court filing cites as an example the song "Viernes Sin Tu Amor," which A.R. is said to have uploaded to YouTube in 2017 and has earned around $24,000 in royalty payments since then.

The Register has written to AdRev's VP of Finance, whose five-letter first name happens to start with a "P," to confirm that A.R. does in fact refer to AdRev. We've also asked whether the company would care to comment.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/12/03/feds_youtube_theft/