If The Pirate Bay is the major labels’ enemy number one still, then surely Grooveshark comes in close second, even if it still claims to be a legal digital music service. Which means major label execs won’t be happy that the US-based streaming platform has just launched a new HTML5 app making it easier for music fans to access the service on their smartphones.
Grooveshark, of course, has already launched apps for both the iPhone and Android-powered devices, but Apple and Google banned them from their respective stores under pressure from the record companies, who accuse the Groovesharkers of infringing their copyrights by running a slack takedown system to remove unlicensed content when it is uploaded by users (and also, in Universal, Sony and Warner’s latest lawsuit, of uploading unlicensed content themselves).
But when companies make web apps available for smartphones they can be accessed via a webpage, circumventing the regulated app stores. Which is why Grooveshark has now gone that route, utilising the extra functionality available with HTML5. Sneaky. Though not an especially clever move if Grooveshark genuinely wants to settle its major label lawsuits out of court and talk the record companies into licensing its streaming platform.
Perhaps the folks over at Grooveshark have concluded that will never happen, and are instead hoping they can prevail in court and carry on running a business based the inadequacies of America’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act in setting minimum requirements for takedown procedures.
Sections: Digital - Top Stories | Tags: DMCA, Grooveshark, The Pirate Bay
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