It appears Grooveshark's days are just about numbered. The music sharing service has been dealt what could easily amount to a death blow by a US District Court judge, which found that Grooveshark's own employees personally (and willfully) violated and profited from copyright infringement. It's been a long saga; Grooveshark has faced lawsuit after lawsuit in recent years. It's managed to overcome some by striking deals with publishers, but vengeful music labels haven't given up on sinking the company.

Most recently, Grooveshark had tried to seek protection under the "safe harbor" provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It took on …

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The streaming music service Grooveshark has been a legal punching bag for almost the entire music industry, but the company has announced an agreement that will address at least one subset of its legal concerns. Grooveshark has signed a settlement and licensing deal with Sony / ATV Music Publishing that will put the legal battle between the two companies to rest, and will also see Sony / ATV's catalog added to Grooveshark's offerings. In a statement, Grooveshark CEO Sam Tarantino said that "We are excited to add Sony / ATV Music's impressive array of songwriters to our catalog further advancing our mission to empower creators with the best a …

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Grooveshark, the oft-sued streaming music service, appears to be putting some of its legal troubles behind it. The company is expected to announce, perhaps as early as this week, that it has signed a licensing agreement with EMI Music Publishing after first settling their legal differences. In September, EMI accused Grooveshark of breach of contract and copyright violations.

This is the latest development in Grooveshark's ongoing legal saga with the top record companies. Seemingly every year, we see Grooveshark license music, then stop paying, and then get sued again. The company enables users to post songs that other listeners can access. …

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An important legal protection that defends websites like YouTube from being held liable for user-generated copyright infringement has been called into question by a New York state appellate court. Since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) passed in 1998, companies have been protected under a provision known as "safe harbor" that makes them unaccountable for such content until they becomes aware of it. But now, courts disagree on whether that safe harbor applies to audio recordings created before 1972.

Confusion in the courts

In a case between Universal Music Group and the music streaming service Grooveshark, the court ruled that the …

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After finding itself under fire during a licensing suit back in January, Grooveshark is in trouble with EMI yet again. According to CNET, EMI has filed suit against the music streaming service for its failure to provide sales records and make monthly licensing payments, as outlined by a September 2009 agreement. EMI had actually terminated its contract with Grooveshark in March of this year, but the company continued to distribute the label's music through the service.

Grooveshark previously won a dispute against Universal Music using the DMCA's safe harbor provision - which protects hosting sites from liability for user-uploaded content th …

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EMI has terminated its contract with Grooveshark, leaving the music streaming service with an uncertain future without support from any major label and pending lawsuits from all four of them, including EMI. The news of the termination comes by way of CNET, and in a statement Grooveshark confirmed the separation:

Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI's currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI's pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws. To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to f …

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More bad news for Grooveshark today: a court in Denmark has ruled that both the streaming music service and its users are infringing the copyright of record labels, resulting in an injunction forcing mobile ISP 3 Denmark to block the site. The lawsuit mirrors the allegations of copyright infringement the service is facing in the US, with Universal, EMI, Sony, and Warner alleging that Grooveshark hosts illegal copies of music and is unresponsive to takedown notices. The scale of the Danish case is broader: the RettighedsAlliancen group which won the injunction represents 30 rights holders in all.

RettighedsAlliancen hopes that the injunction …

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EMI has just become the latest of four major labels to sue streaming music service Grooveshark. The label had previously sued for copyright infringement, but ended up settling with Grooveshark in 2009 and licensing its music to the service. Now, however, it's saying that Grooveshark has "made not a single royalty payment to EMI, nor provided a single accounting statement." Grooveshark has allegedly estimated its debts at $150,000, but EMI says the actual amount is much higher.

In the last few months, Sony, Warner, and Universal Music have all filed suit against Grooveshark for copyright infringement, and the addition of EMI's suit means Gro …

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Grooveshark is no stranger to lawsuits, but the company may be facing its biggest battle yet - Sony and Warner this week joined in a lawsuit with Universal Music that seems clearly aimed at wiping the music service off the map. Universal filed the original copyright infringement lawsuit in November, alleging that Grooveshark executives personally uploaded illegal songs to the site. With Sony and Warner backing the suit, it effectively pits the entire inudstry against Grooveshark.

Grooveshark's long-standing defense has been the DMCA, which puts the responsibility on copyright owners to ask for infringing content to be taken down - it's the …

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