IP Law Daily, COPYRIGHT—S.D.N.Y.: YouTube encryption ‘effectively controls access‘ for DMCA purposes, (Apr 16, 2026)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

But the Second Circuit has yet to weigh in on the question.

A YouTube encryption mechanism intended to prevent users from downloading videos qualifies as a technological measure that “effectively controls access” to those videos under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act even though YouTube made the videos available for streaming and it was possible for skilled users to bypass that mechanism, the federal court for Manhattan has held. But the court, in allowing the DMCA claim to go forward for now, took pains to note that the question was currently pending for review in another case before the Second Circuit (Sonv Music Entertainment v. Uncharted Labs, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-04777-AKH (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 15, 2026)).

The opinion arises out of a lawsuit that major record labels filed in June 2024 against the corporate entities behind AI music generation service Udio. The service, which was launched earlier in that year, allows users to enter text prompts or audio clips to generate digital music files. The record labels claim that Udio trains its AI models on copyrighted music that it obtained by pirating them from YouTube. In doing so, the labels claim, Udio circumvented a YouTube encryption measure known as a “rolling cipher” in order to gain access to the files for downloading.

Udio moved to dismiss the DMCA claim, leading to this opinion.

Anti-circumvention. The court found that the claim could go forward, at least for now. Section 1201 of the DMCA, codified at 17 U.S.C. § 1201, makes it unlawful to traffic in any device or technology that enables the circumvention of two types of technical measures: those that “effectively control[] access” to copyrighted works and those that “effectively protect[] a right of a copyright owner” under the Copyright Act. These two types of technical measures are commonly known as “access controls” and “copy controls,” respectively. The DMCA also prohibits the actual use, in addition to the trafficking in, of any anti-circumvention tool that bypasses access controls. Notably, however, the DMCA does not prohibit the use of anti-circumvention tools that bypass copy controls.

The question that arose in this motion, therefore, was the following: if the allegations in the complaint were true, did that mean Udio circumvented YouTube’s access controls or merely its copy controls? Put another way, the court noted, did YouTube’s “rolling cipher” encryption technology—which Udio allegedly hacked into—constitute a “technical measure that regulate[d] ‘access’ to its content”? The court found that it was premature to tell—meaning that the complaint would have to go forward for now. “Whether YouTube’s measures ultimately constitute access controls within the meaning of § 1201 requires a greater factual record than the pleadings contain,” the court noted. “Defendants may renew their arguments after a factual record is developed.”

Perhaps notably, the court took pains to acknowledge that the same issues had been addressed in Yout, LLC v. Recording Indus. Ass’n of Am., 644 F. Supp. 3d 650 (D. Conn. 2022), which is currently pending on appeal before the Second Circuit. In that opinion, the district court concluded after an extensive analysis of the facts and the law that YouTube’s encryption measures did effectively “control[] access” to YouTube-hosted works—even though in practice YouTue made those works publicly available for streaming. The Manhattan court made clear that, while it would not predict the outcome of the Yout case on appeal, “the parties may raise any future decisions” in the case “at later stages of these proceedings, if applicable.”

The Case is No. 1:24-cv-04777-AKH.

Judge: Hellerstein, A.

Attorneys: Jonathan Zachary King (Cowan, Liebowitz, & Latman, PC) for Sony Music Entertainment. Alex Spiro (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP) for Uncharted Labs, Inc.

Companies: Sony Music Entertainment; Uncharted Labs, Inc.

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