A lawsuit against a music-sharing website has finally brought Grooveshark to an end. Warner, Sony and Universal Music sued the company in 2011 in an attempt to stop illegal copyright infringements. The judge ruled that the company committed a “wilful and willful violation” of copyright laws by illegally sharing over five thousand songs, resulting in damages of around PS480 million, or $736 million 52av.
Grooveshark was an audio version of YouTube
Originally, grooveshark was a streaming service, relying on users to upload music. The company had a rocky start, though, as major labels viewed it as offensive and began filing lawsuits. After years of being sued, Grooveshark finally secured a licensing deal with EMI. Today, it serves over 20 million users. The site also lets users listen to entire albums. Its biggest drawback, though, is that it doesn’t support streaming music from video sites, like Spotify or Songza.
While YouTube has taken the lead in implementing copyright laws, Grooveshark has always been subject to legal action. Major record labels sued the company in 2010 because it failed to enforce copyrighted music and didn’t follow DMCA. In 2010, Grooveshark’s app store was banned from Apple and Facebook because it violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act postinghub. However, YouTube now has licences with most content owners, and its takedown system has remained largely intact.
It was compliant with American copyright law
The New York State Supreme Court recently reversed a lower court decision that sided with Escape Media Group Inc., the company that operates Grooveshark. The music streaming service had been accused of violating copyright laws by Universal Music Group by hosting unlicensed music from their catalog prior to 1972. However, recordings from 1972 onward explicitly fall under the DMCA, which grants online service providers safe harbor from copyright litigation if they remove infringing content uploaded by users thoptvnews.
However, Grooveshark had thousands of illegal files uploaded even before it began operations. This was largely due to employees putting up illegal music files. The company also changed the song file with an unlicensed version of the same song. This did not comply with Grooveshark’s obligation to remove all songs of the same title. This breach of the law has forced the company to remove infringing files.
It was built in HTML5
A popular music-sharing service has shut down. After 20 years and 35 million users, Grooveshark has gotten its final closure. The reason? A lawsuit from several major recording labels. Despite a legal settlement, Grooveshark must hand over its website, mobile apps, and intellectual property. In return, the service will wipe its servers of all copyrighted music.
Grooveshark was similar to Napster, but it was cloud-based and free. It was not legally licensed to host music, and it ran ads right alongside it. Its library was largely crowdsourced and occasionally employees of the company uploaded their own tracks magazinemania. It was also possible to subscribe to a paid ad-free service. However, this service’s demise comes as a blow to music companies and their artists.
It was a search engine for music
Initially, Grooveshark was a free service that allowed users to listen to songs from a large variety of genres. In addition to offering an extensive catalog of music, Grooveshark also included a “Community” section newsbench. This enabled users to track the activities of their friends, follow them, and connect their social media accounts. The service even offered a playlist for users to listen to their favorite songs in chronological order.
Conclusion
But soon after it was founded, Grooveshark was sued for copyright infringement, which ultimately led to its demise. While Grooveshark initially denied these accusations, it now readily admits to its crimes. According to music industry consultant Mark Mulligan, the company exploited legal grey areas and the endless process of appeals newsstock. The company ceased to exist on April 30, 2015, after a decade of controversy.
