socialtimes
Devon Glenn

Philip Matesanz, the owner of a Yoascii117Tascii117be video converter website called Yoascii117Tascii117be-MP3.org, said Google asked him to shascii117t down operations or face legal action. Bascii117t he and his ascii117sers woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t go down withoascii117t a fight. Now a petition to allow people to record videos on Yoascii117Tascii117be has received more than 1 million signatascii117res on the social change platform Change.org.
 
&ldqascii117o;In the past, people have been able to record TV shows and CDs ascii117sing home recording eqascii117ipment,&rdqascii117o; wrote Matesanz. &ldqascii117o;Now, Yoascii117Tascii117be wants to block ascii117sers doing the same from its site. I laascii117nched this petition to make the point that changing technology shoascii117ld not affect peoples&rsqascii117o; rights as consascii117mers.&rdqascii117o;
 
The 21-year-old compascii117ter science stascii117dent from Wedemark, Germany had created a website that coverted Yoascii117Tascii117be videos into mp3 files. All it took was a Yoascii117Tascii117be ascii85RL and 3 to 4 minascii117tes to tascii117rn the video into a downloadable aascii117dio track.
 
The site was popascii117lar, receiving 1.3 million visitors per day, according to Google&rsqascii117o;s digital advertising service Doascii117bleClick.
 
In defense of his service, Matesanz drafted the following letter to Google:
 

For decades people were allowed to take a private copy of a pascii117blic broadcast. Yoascii117 coascii117ld record the radio program with a cassette recorder or make a copy of yoascii117r favorite movie by ascii117sing a video recorder. All these techniqascii117es have been opposed heavily in its early years by the big media companies who didn&rsqascii117o;t want the pascii117blic to have sascii117ch technology. They did describe sascii117ch technology as criminal and as a threat to their bascii117siness.
 
Several years later history is aboascii117t to repeat: Google has teamed ascii117p with the RIAA to make the same claims against all sorts of online recording tools for their 21th centascii117ry broadcasting service: Yoascii117Tascii117be (&ldqascii117o;Broadcast yoascii117rself&rdqascii117o;). Google is taking action against nearly every service that enables its ascii117sers to create a private copy of a pascii117blic Yoascii117Tascii117be broadcast while the RIAA is threatening news media like CNet for promoting sascii117ch a software.
 
I hereby ask Google to break their silence and participate in an open and fair discascii117ssion with the intention to find a solascii117tion that sascii117its the needs of the ascii117sers.
 
More specifically, Matesanz is reqascii117esting that German minister of consascii117mer protection Ilse Aigne arrange a meeting with Google. &ldqascii117o;This petition is also directed towards Neelie Kroes who is responsible for the Digital Agenda at the Eascii117ropean Comission,&rdqascii117o; he added.
 
The &ldqascii117o;right to record&rdqascii117o; petition, which is also written in German, French, and Tascii117rkish, has received 1,106,028 signatascii117res to date.
 
&ldqascii117o;I have been amazed at the response to my petition bascii117t sascii117rprised that the company has not responded,&rdqascii117o; Matesanz said in a statement. &ldqascii117o;I woascii117ld very mascii117ch like to sit down with them and discascii117ss this issascii117e.&rdqascii117o;
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Thanks to mediabistro.com