A federal judge has recommended that the operators of two Russian stream-ripping websites pay more than $80 million in damages for circumventing YouTube’s anti-piracy measures and infringing copyrights of audio recordings.

In a case brought by more than a dozen record labels, including UMG Recordings, Warner Records and Sony Music Entertainment, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan said the sites operated by Tofig Kurbanov, a Russian national, should be shut down permanently via injunctions and that statutory damages of $50,000 be awarded for each of the 1,618 copyrighted works the sites infringed.

Kurbanov operates www.FLVTO.biz and www.2conv.com, which the Fourth Circuit has previously recognized as “two of the most popular stream-ripping websites in the world and…among the most popular of any kind on the Internet,” Buchanan wrote in her 26-page report and recommendation.

Judge Buchanan awarded a total of $82,922,500 in combined violations. The award includes $80.9 million for infringements of the Copyright Act and $2,022,500 in DMCA violations, or $1,250 per act of circumvention, according to the court’s ruling filed on Dec. 16. The award also includes labels’ attorneys’ fees and costs.

The judge said that the 1,618 claimed violations “are likely on the low end of Defendant’s indeterminable number of violations.” Kurbanov argued the statutory damages should be the lowest amount — $200 per violation — or none at all.

The piracy operation, which drew more than 300 million global users who used the sites from October 2017 to September 2018, encouraged copyright infringement and then profited by selling advertising on its websites. The Russian sites allow users to convert URLs into free downloadable and distributable MP3s through stream ripping. The websites incorporate youtube-dl software — third-party software engineered to bypass YouTube’s media protection mechanisms, including “rolling cipher.”

Several national governments including the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Russia have previously ordered internet providers to block access to the websites. The Kurbanov complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., in 2018 under the Copyright Act of 1976, had previously established U.S. courts’ jurisdiction over foreign piracy websites that infringe on works inside the U.S.

“This litigation sets out vital first principles that should chart a path for further enforcement against foreign stream-rippers and other forms of online piracy that undermine the legitimate market for music,” said RIAA chief legal officer Ken Doroshow. “This ruling is a major step forward to protect artists, songwriters, record labels, and consumers from one of the most pernicious forms of online piracy.”

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton will now review Judge Buchanan’s recommendation for a final determination and order.

Lil Durk is officially engaged to his longtime girlfriend India Royale.

On Saturday, during his performance for radio station WGCI’s Big Jam Concert at the United Center in the pair’s Chicago hometown, the hitmaker (nee Durk Derrick Banks) caught the audience by surprise when he unexpectedly proposed to Royale onstage.

Durk was on bended knee when he asked Royale, “Do you wanna be my wife?” The enthusiastic crowd burst into applause in celebration of the special moment before Royale said yes. The rap star shared a video of his proposal on Instagram.

The two reportedly started dating in 2017. They became parents to daughter Willow Banks soon after in November 2018.

The heartwarming marriage proposal culminates an incredible year for Lil Durk, who appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart eight times in 2021. His collaborative hit album The Voice of the Heroes with Lil Baby also earned a spot on Billboard‘s annual 20 Best Hip-Hop Albums list. Also exciting for Lil Durk: His jam “Hellcats & Trackhawks” scored his first-ever solo appearance on the Hot 100.

His sixth studio album, The Voice, peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in January.

Lil Durk appears on Ye’s album Donda, which could win the Grammy award for album of the year at next month’s broadcast.

See the proposal below:

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Charli XCX‘s SNL performance was called off Saturday night (Dec. 18) due to a limited crew amid the surge of COVID-19 cases linked to the omicron variant in New York City, but she did make a cameo in a pre-recorded musical sketch for the show.

“The Christmas Socks,” possibly a parody of the 2000 song “The Christmas Shoes,” was led by SNL host Paul Rudd and featured Charli as a very special guest: a singing bird named T.J. Rocks.

“Christmas is a time of charity and giving, and that was the inspiration for this next music video, which I shot yesterday morning with Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and what should have been tonight’s musical guest, Charli XCX,” Rudd said in his introduction of the musical segment. “It’s a heartfelt Christmas song about a magical moment between a boy and a strange man at a department store. Enjoy!”

Charli shared the unfortunate news that she would not be performing on Saturday night’s episode shortly after SNL announced the show would tape without a live audience that night.

“due to the limited crew at tonight’s taping of snl my musical performances will no longer be able to go ahead. i am devastated and heartbroken,” she said on social media, promising she’ll “be back.”

In a later tweet, Charli added, “heya just to clear up any confusion i didn’t decide to cancel or pull out of the show tonight! We were informed at around 3pm ish that my segment of the show wouldn’t be able to go ahead for everyone’s safety and so there was nothing we could do.”

Watch the pre-taped sketch that she was able to take part in below.

The organizers of a Los Angeles festival that was the scene of a high-profile homicide Saturday night (Dec. 18), when rapper Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed, had recently made a major management change, ending its relationship with the organizers of Coachella in July to ink a new joint venture with global concert promoter Live Nation. Last month, Live Nation came under heavy fire for its alleged role in the deadly Astroworld festival headlined by Travis Scott that killed 10 people and left scores more injured.

Authorities say that Drakeo was murdered in a stabbing attack Saturday during the Once Upon a Time in LA festival at Exposition Park and Banc of California Stadium in downtown Los Angeles. Headlined by Snoop Dogg, the festival was a joint venture between Live Nation and veteran independent promoter Robert “Bobby Dee” Drieslein, who is Snoop’s business partner. Austin, Texas, festival promoter C3 Presents, which promotes Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, was also involved in producing the festival, a Live Nation rep confirmed.

Once Upon a Time in LA was created by Drieslein and well-known talent buyer Jeff Shuman in 2017 under the name Summertime in the LBC and had been promoted by Goldenvoice, the AEG-owned concert company behind Coachella. Goldenvoice also co-promoted the R&B-focused Lovers and Friends festival owned by Dreislein and Shuman and the Smokin Grooves festival, which the men co-owned with booking agent Cara Lewis.

From 2017 to 2019, the three festivals were staged at an outdoor site in Long Beach near the Queen Mary, a 1930s-era luxury ocean liner that had been permanently moored and converted into a hotel. In 2019, Summertime in the LBC was renamed Once Upon a Time in LA following a settlement with the Long Beach band The Dove Shack, who wrote the 1995 song “Summertime in the LBC” and claimed the Summertime in the LBC festival infringed on the group’s intellectual property. Goldenvoice also promoted a Latin music and Chicano rock festival on the site called Tropicalia festival in 2017 and 2018 before moving the festival to the Pomona Fairplex in 2019. Records show that Shuman owned a trademark for Tropicalia Festival and that Bobby Dee Presents Inc. owned a trademark for both Once Upon a Time in LA and Once Upon a Time in the LBC.

The festivals were rapidly growing and selling out in record time (Once Upon a Time in the LBC 2019 sold out in an hour) when the pandemic hit in March 2020, followed by the bankruptcy of Urban Commons in April 2021 amid fraud accusations. The real estate company had reportedly used the Queen Mary as collateral for a number of large loans and was threatened with jail time by a federal bankruptcy judge accusing Urban Commons executives of diverting $2.4 million in PPP loans meant for Queen Mary to personal bank accounts, court records show.

The bankruptcy ended Goldenvoice’s agreement with Urban Commons, and the concert company moved the events it owned to different venues, including a park space in Long Beach. Then in July 2021, Shuman parted ways with Goldenvoice and joined global concert promoter Live Nation, which inked a new JV with Shuman and Drieslein under more favorable terms, Dreislein confirmed to Billboard in a September interview.

Th 43-year-old Dreislein manages Snoop’s Dogg’s live business and its Uncle Snoop’s Army platform, which is part booking agency and part fan club. He also co-manages Ice Cube’s concert business and manages the careers of Cypress Hill frontman B-Real, Warren G, Xzibit, Lisa Lisa, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Trae tha Truth and Berner. Dreislein is the son of a successful night club owner and promoter and grew up in in South Los Angeles.

The killing of Drakeo the Ruler is the second deadly incident to happen at a Live Nation festival this year, although the circumstances between Astroworld and Once Upon a Time in LA are quite different. A crowd crush of fans trying to rush the stage is the cause of the high casualty count at the Houston festival, while the death of Drakeo was the result of a fight backstage at the festival, sources tell Billboard. No arrests have been made in the case.

Billboard contacted reps for Dreislen and Shuman, and neither man elected not to comment at this time.