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The owner of a US-based YouTube download site has been convicted — in Brazil

Yout proprietor faces fines from a Brazilian court over alleged copyright abuse.
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Dec 22, 2025 — 2:29 PM ET

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A close-up of the YouTube app running on an Android phone.
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TL;DR
  • The owner of video-download platform Yout has been convicted on copyright infringement charges in Brazil.
  • Yout operator John Nader is a US citizen and operates Yout within the US. The Brazilian court argues that because Brazilian citizens have accessed Yout, Nader is subject to Brazilian law.
  • Nader may appeal the verdict, which imposes fines or potential jail time.

Yout is an online utility that lets users download copies of videos from various sources, including YouTube. Founder John Nader insists that the service Yout offers doesn’t break the law — but a Brazilian criminal court disagrees.

File sharing blog TorrentFreak reports that last week, a judge of the 12th Criminal Court of São Paulo issued a ruling against Nader, imposing a hefty fine for violating Brazil’s copyright laws.

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Judge Eva Lobo Chaib Dias Jorge’s Portuguese-language ruling asserts that Yout exists primarily as a means to circumvent video platforms’ security features in a way that violates the rights of copyright owners — that it’s a tool for piracy. The ruling itself doesn’t mention a specific monetary figure, but TorrentFreak‘s calculations put the fine Nader faces at about $55,000, USD.

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Nader is a US citizen and operates Yout within the US. The Brazilian court argues that, because people in Brazil use Yout, Nader is subject to the country’s laws that govern online service providers.

Featured Comment

This guy has nothing to worry about as long as he doesn't set foot in Brazil. The mutual legal assistance treaty doesn't apply in this case because it's not a drug crime. Civil forfeiture is enforced at the state level and no US state will enforce a penalty from a foreign country.

This is the latest development in a years-long legal process, the report says. The Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo filed a complaint against Nader in 2021. The next year, Nader refused an offer to suspend criminal prosecution of the case, which would’ve seen Yout’s proprietor pay a fine of about $400,000, among other concessions.

Nader has long pointed to the 1984 Supreme Court case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc, as providing the legal precedent under which Yout operates. In the “Betamax case” (so called for the Sony-developed video tape format), the court ruled that making personal recordings of TV shows for the purpose of “time shifting” (i.e., to watch them later) constitutes fair use and does not infringe copyright. Yout’s attorneys unsuccessfully argued along similar lines in the lead-up to Nader’s conviction in Brazil, comparing the platform to an online DVR.

Nader is expected to appeal the court’s ruling. For now, TorrentFreak reports that Yout.com is currently being blocked by Brazilian ISPs.

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    1. Comment by llzahgurimll.

      Are they going to fine him a Brazilian dollars? (Bad joke.. but had to post!)

      • Reply by carpediembr.

        Brazilian has become a joke on judicial rulings. They recently convicted a young lady of trying an armed coup d'etat for 14 years for writing TWO words (phrase that one of the judges said) in a statue....with her lipstick

    2. Comment by stells.david.

      Brazil’s judiciary is so corrupt (see Operation Car Wash/Lava Jato, among others) that it’s pretty plain to see this is a money grab. I’m sure they’d be happy to resolve it “for a fee or generous personal donation.”

      • Comment by andreduartesp.

        This kind of rulling in Brazil is because of pression from USA government to fight piracy.

        • Comment by Levi Mulkey.

          Featured

          This guy has nothing to worry about as long as he doesn't set foot in Brazil. The mutual legal assistance treaty doesn't apply in this case because it's not a drug crime. Civil forfeiture is enforced at the state level and no US state will enforce a penalty from a foreign country.

          • Comment by esevigny1.

            Give me a break, Brazil can't even enforce the laws in their own country. As long as this guy never goes to Brazil there's nothing they can do.

            • Reply by stells.david.

              They can’t enforce them bc the justice system is so corrupt that you can get into or out of anything for a fee.

              I have a good friend who works in the Brazilian government and she has told me several times that she believes it is one of the most corrupt governments in the world at all levels.

          • Comment by Marcos Alano.

            That's a stupid legal move made by a very specific Brazilian's judge. I hope that escalate to higher instances, and be dismissed. Full disclouse: I'm in fact Brazilian.

            • Reply by andreduartesp.

              This is result of FBI documents saying that Brazil is complacent with piracy, and Trump using it against our economy

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