Grooveshark shuts down

Music streaming site Grooveshark has shut down its website and surrendered all intellectual property rights, following the loss of its lawsuit to Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.

Following a long and complicated legal battle with the three label giants, Grooveshark’s parent company Escape Media has agreed to settle the case by wiping clean their servers of record companies’ music, and shutting down their site effective immediately.

“We have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights,” reads a statement on Grooveshark’s website.

The former streaming service expressed regret for their mistakes, saying that their failure to secure licenses from rights holders was “wrong,” despite having “the best of intentions.”

“Grooveshark founders Josh Greenberg and Sam Tarantino admit to creating and operating an infringing music service,” said a statement from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Earlier this week, the court heard that Grooveshark was liable for up to $736 million in damages in relation to 2,963 unauthorised uploads by staff members and a further 1,944 ‘”inferred uploads”, where the company was caught deleting uploaded data.

The maximum statutory penalty per infringement is $150,000 for willful violations.

This outcome marks yet another legal victory for record labels and artists in relation to copyright, following Canada’s extension of copyright terms earlier this month.