On Friday, "Universal Music Group" filed a huge lawsuit with the New York Federal Court, against Online Music Streaming Website "GrooveShark" for copyright infringement, Universal are claiming that GrooveShark uploaded more than 100,000 songs without any licensing agreements and they are now seeking Maximum Statutory Damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

Universal claims that access company documents and emails reveal that thousands of audio recordings owned by Universal were illegally copied to the GrooveShark system.

Part of the lawsuit claims that Samuel Tarantino, the CEO of GrooveShark personally uploaded around 1,791 copyrighted songs.

The "Escape Media Group", who are the owners of GrooveShark, claim that it currently streams around 100 Million songs per month and to date has over 35 Million registered users.

This is now the first time GrooveShark have been in trouble, they were sued this year by "RettighedsAlliancen" for having no audio distribution agreements with them and in 2010 were sued by "Universal" for uploading to their pre 1972 songs. They have also been sued by artists such as Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

The lawsuit was filled just days after GrooveShark unveiled the new design of its website.

Enjoy this Article? Tell others about it