Grooveshark Faces $736 Million In Damages As Trial Resumes Today
The UMG vs. Grooveshark trial resumes in New York today. With the judge ruling last week that the company is liable for up to $736 million in damages, the jury is likely deciding whether or not Grooveshark will survive.
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Last week, the judge set a range of damages in the lawsuit of UMG v. Escape Media, Grooveshark's parent company. As the trial resumes to today, the jury will be instructed that the maximum statutory 
damage is $150,000 per infringed work rather than the usual $30,000 because the infringements were willful.
With 4907 tracks ruled infringing, the minimum total damages that can be awarded is $3,680,250 and the maximum is $736,050,000.
"Escape was directly liable for the infringing uploads of its employees, because the record included uncontroverted evidence that defendants instructed their employees to upload copyright protected music onto Grooveshark," the judge wrote in his decision. "The court also found that defendants Tarantino and Greenberg-the co-founders of Grooveshark-were jointly and severally liable for Escape's infringement, and were also liable for direct infringement based on their own infringing uploads."
Read the full ruling via Recording Industry vs The People.
