Want to make $23 million doing almost nothing? YouTube has been giving scammers the chance to rake in huge sums with barely any effort. All they had to do was claim copyright on music clips uploaded by others, then casually collect the royalties.
That’s basically what two guys from Phoenix did to steal millions in royalties from Latin music stars like Daddy Yankee and Julio Iglesias. Billboard broke the story last week.
The biggest royalty scam YouTube has ever seen
According to Kristin Robinson at Billboard, Jose “Chenel” Medina Teran and Webster Batista set up a media company called MediaMuv and claimed ownership of thousands of Latin songs and compositions. From 2017, when their scam began, MediaMuv claimed rights to over 50,000 works and collected around $23 million.
To officially claim these copyrights and collect royalties through YouTube’s Content ID system, the scammers partnered with AdRev, a third-party company with access to YouTube’s CMS (Content Management System) and Content ID tools. AdRev helps artists manage their digital rights.
MediaMuv forged documents to convince AdRev they owned the music. This allowed AdRev not only to collect royalties on their behalf but also gave Teran and Batista direct access to YouTube’s CMS tools so they could claim even more copyrights themselves.
This four-year royalty theft only came to light late last year after an IRS investigation. Billboard reports the pair were charged with “30 counts including conspiracy to commit fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft.” Teran pleaded not guilty, while Batista admitted to phone fraud and conspiracy charges. Batista also revealed how their scam worked.
Billboard calls this “one of the largest YouTube royalty scams in history.”
The flaw in YouTube’s copyright system
While the scale and method of this scam are unprecedented, it highlights a danger many YouTube creators have faced for years. YouTube’s Content ID system, designed to help creators protect their work, is being exploited by scammers to profit off content they don’t own.
Many cases are just false claims triggered by automated errors, but MediaMuv’s case perfectly shows how scammers abuse YouTube’s copyright rules to make money and harm real creators.
YouTube knows how powerful the CMS and Content ID tools are, so they tightly restrict external access. But this also means independent creators and artists can’t easily verify or fight fake copyright claims. They must go through rights management companies to get access.
The scammers exploited this too, forging documents to gain access through trusted third parties like AdRev.
With creators left almost defenseless, just look at how long MediaMuv’s scam went unnoticed. It’s likely other, more careful scammers are still stealing royalties from artists worldwide without being caught.
Source: Mashable
