Madonna, Green Day, Jay-Z and Eminem are among the artists whose recordings were unlawfully uploaded by Grooveshark employees.

Free music service Grooveshark found guilty of copyright infringement

October 3, 2014 10:55 am Published by Leave your thoughts

Fourteen years after the widely publicized Napster debacle of 2000 in which the peer-to-peer file-sharing service was charged with copyright infringement, free music service Grooveshark and its employees have been found guilty of the same offense. Grooveshark, which is funded by advertising revenue, has been under the music industry's attack "for years," according to The Guardian. This particular suit was initiated in 2011 and concluded with United States District Judge Thomas Griesa issuing his decision Monday, Sept. 29, 2014.

Grooveshark's parent company, Escape Media Group, Inc., was sued for copy infringement by "nine corporations that own or hold exclusive licenses to the copyrights of a large body of popular sound recordings," according to an official court document of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York. Those 9 companies have targeted Grooveshark because it has neglected to obtain proper licensing for all of the recordings it made available to users.

Approximately 30 million subscribers currently use the service, which allows them to upload and stream music free of charge. The Guardian reports that those users have uploaded about 15 million files. Grooveshark employees were directly instructed to upload almost 6,000 tracks without permission.

"Although Grooveshark's music library includes works by all of plaintiffs' top commercial artists and attracts tens of millions of users each month, defendants [Escape] have never obtained any licenses from plaintiffs to exploit any of their copyrighted sound recordings," United States District Judge Thomas Griesa wrote in his decision.

In addition to Escape, Grooveshark creators Sam Tarantino and Josh Greenberg were both found liable for direct and secondary copyright infringement, having uploaded the protected works under the nine plaintiffs' ownership.

This case clearly illustrates the consequences of neglecting to follow intellectual property law. If your small business depends on the usage of protected works, contact a business attorney to ensure you are protected from liability.

Related posts:

  1. Grooveshark shuts down to settle copyright suit
  2. Google, Sony and Apple face music copyright lawsuit
  3. Universal music countersued
  4. Ministry of Sound sues Spotify for intellectual property infringement

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