Grooveshark Clone Slammed With Damages In Lost Court Case

Following the original Grooveshark's demise, a cloned version of the service was brought to life in early May of this year, just a few days after the original service was killed. The person behind it, dubbed 'Shark', had some connection to the original Grooveshark, though not much was known about him. As anticipated, the RIAA moved swiftly against the website, and now following a failure to keep up the legal battle, Groveshark's clone is no more.

The RIAA sought — and ultimately got — an injunction against the Grooveshark clone, limiting access to it. The team behind Grooveshark clone (GC) got around it by jumping to a different domain name, and jumping again when forced to. That went on for a relatively short while.

Soon, though, whomever was behind the website fizzled away, dropping communication and leaving things as they were. The lack of communication meant the legal battle was handed over to the RIAA — it requested a default judgement and, most recently, has received its from a U.S. District Court.

Now that it is has lost, the person running GC has been hit with massive damages, not the least of which is $150,000 USD for instances of infringement totaling $13,350,000 USD overall. As well, 'Shark' has to pay $4 million for reproducing a couple of Grooveshark trademarks and $400,000 for registering four Grooveshark domains, earning a cybersquatting charge.

Of course, the identity of 'Shark' is unknown, and so likely the RIAA will never get a cent.

SOURCE: Torrent Freak