Courts
Universal Music Group is suing an online music service in state court, an unusual forum for copyright infringement complaints. The major label told the New York Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil trial court, that Grooveshark was infringing its…
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pre-1972 recordings by Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Jackson 5 and other acts whose works remain “immensely popular and valuable.” Pre-1972 recordings aren’t covered by the federal Copyright Act. Grooveshark settled a much broader infringement suit by EMI Music last year through a licensing agreement. UMG said in its complaint that the New York court has jurisdiction because Grooveshark, of Florida, allows New York residents to upload works and gives them access to infringing files, requiring “a high level of interaction between users, their computers, and defendant’s website and servers.” The service encourages users to upload the works at issue, after which they're available to other Grooveshark users for on-demand streaming using technology that lets them pause, forward, rewind or replay the stream, UMG said. A user can create a “library” of saved songs for on-demand streaming, share them through social applications, and through a new paid subscription option, cache songs on a phone so they can be played even out of network range, the complaint said. As recently as Dec. 29 Grooveshark was advertising other premium features in its “VIP” offering, such as more library storage. The suit said Grooveshark “refuses to implement readily available filtering.” UMG asked for compensatory and punitive damages. We couldn’t reach Grooveshark for comment.