Spotify secures $322m judgment against elusive music pirates

Spotify and the trio of leading record labels have secured a $322 million default judgment against Anna’s Archive, an open-source library and piracy advocacy group, known for planning to unveil millions of music files extracted from Spotify's service.

This ruling follows the anonymous operator behind Anna’s Archive failing to engage with a lawsuit initiated by Spotify, along with Universal Music Group (UMG), Warner Music Group (WMG), and Sony Music, which was publicly disclosed in January. 

The legal action was triggered after Anna’s Archive announced in December that it had ripped 86 million tracks from Spotify, aiming to set up a “preservation archive” by sharing the files through BitTorrent.

In their joint complaint, Spotify and partners termed Anna’s Archive’s scraping operation as “outright theft of millions of files encompassing nearly all global commercial sound recordings.” 

Despite facing legal pressures, the shadow library quietly published torrents for almost three million songs in February.

The default ruling, issued on Tuesday by Judge Jed Rakoff from the Southern District of New York, grants Spotify $300 million in compensation, with UMG, WMG, and Sony Music receiving a combined $22.2 million. 

Additionally, the decision enforces a permanent injunction mandating internet service providers to block the Anna’s Archive site and orders them to eliminate all copies of content taken from Spotify.

Imposing these measures effectively presents a significant challenge, considering those behind Anna’s Archive still remain unidentified. 

Furthermore, as Billboard points out, Anna’s Archive has a history of resurfacing on new domains to evade closure.