Streaming service Grooveshark is going, but for how much longer? Admittedly, that sentence (or a variant of it) is something we’ve written several times in recent times. But the latest court ruling against the company – summary judgement in a copyright lawsuit filed by EMI – is another nail in the coffin. Although the company can appeal, if it fails,
it could face maximum damages of $420m, and even the likely prospect of a lower final bill would come on top of an already-precarious financial position. Grooveshark responded to the ruling by claiming to toughen up its anti-piracy measures: a two-strike policy that will see user accounts terminated if they’re caught uploading infringing songs more than once; plans to create a Content ID-style “pre-screening tool” for rightsholders; and a record of repeat infringers’ details. But as we’ve said before, with so much bad blood down the years between Grooveshark and rightsholders, it’s hard to see a path forward that ends in a happily-licensed service, rather than a corporate shutdown.
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…