EMI Sues Grooveshark Again For Copyright Infringement And Contract Breach

The rough waters continue
for Grooveshark today, as EMI has filed a new break of contract and copyright
infringement lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit couldn’t come at a worse
time for the music service, in the wake of Google banning the Grooveshark
Android app from the Google Play app marketplace (twice).

The suit was filed in a
Manhattan federal court Thursday where EMI accused Grooveshark of falling behind
in its monthly payments and failing to provide sales records after entering
into a licensing agreement with the label in September of 2009. EMI says they
need the sales data to accurately know what to charge the service, and due to
Grooveshark's failure to pay, the label terminated the deal back in March. Despite
this, Grooveshark continued distributing and allowing users to share EMI
catalog music.

"While we always
strive to keep lines of communication open with rights holders, artists and all
other interested parties, disagreements inevitably arise, as is true in any
business, particularly one that is pushing for innovation and industry change,”
Grooveshark said in a statement. "We remain confident that we will be able
to resolve our dispute with EMI."

EMI says in the lawsuit
that should the deal ever be terminated, Grooveshark agreed that their management
would not invoke the safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, which protects web services from responsibility for the copyright violations
committed by their users – provided of course that they meet the requirements
of the provision.

"Grooveshark can't
invoke the Safe Harbor," EMI said in its complaint. "It specifically
agreed in the settlement agreement and distribution agreement that it would not
permit or allow the exploitation of any EMI recordings unless there was an EMI
content agreement in place." 

Despite labels making several legal claims
against Grooveshark over the years, the music service remains steadfast that
they are DMCA compliant, claiming to act quickly in removing infringing works
from their site when notified by copyright owners. Just how this contractual
obligation with EMI affects Grooveshark's DMCA assertion is yet to be seen.

This all comes after a humiliating reversal by
Google to ban the Grooveshark Anrdoid app yet again after being removed in 2011
for violating its polices.

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