Photo: Press
A judge has ruled that music subscription site Grooveshark has infringed copyright, potentially threatening the entire future of the site.
Grooveshark is based around its 30 million subscribers uploading music and streaming tracks, with the site earning revenue through advertising. Grooveshark relies on the “safe harbour” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), meaning that it complies with takedown requests when copyrighted material is flagged, in the same manner as Youtube.
However, as The Guardian reports, Judge Thomas Griesa of the US district court ruled this week in the 2011 case against Grooveshark and its parent company Escape Media. Griesa found that the site was liable for copyright infringement by its employees who were directed to upload 5,977 tracks without permission. “Each time Escape streamed one of plaintiffs’ songs recordings, it directly infringed upon plaintiffs’ exclusive performance rights,” Griesa explained.
This came to light in an internal memo sent in 2007 where chief technology officer Joshua Greenberg asked his employees to “please share as much music as possible from outside the office” to launch the service.
“Escape respectfully disagrees with the court’s decision, and is currently assessing its next steps, including the possibility of an appeal,” the defendants legal team told Ruters.
Griesa's ruling opens the door to a multimillion-pound damages suit from other record labels against Grooveshark.
Below: The Grooveshark offices in happier times
