Grooveshark blocked in Denmark by copyright warriors
DNS-level barrier appeal expected
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Updated A Danish copyright group has won a court order to block music streaming site Grooveshark from the nation's pastry-munching pirates.
In a report of questionable accuracy* (the plaintiff RettighedsAlliancen is incorrectly described as a "local IFPI") at tech site Comon Hutch-owned mobile operator 3 must implement the block immediately. Denmark was one of the first to implement DNS-level blocking, first against Pirate Bay more than three years ago. An appeal is expected.
Grooveshark is being sued by US songwriters and Universal Music. It isn't in dispute that Grooveshark didn't have a licence, with key investor Sina Simantob explaining in an email that "we bet the company on the fact that it is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission". But Universal has also claimed that Grooveshark staff were on an incentive program - the more unlicensed music they uploaded, they more money they got. Grooveshark contests the claim.
Private litigation to block rogue websites is succeeding where SOPA failed. Web-blocking attempts have succeeded in the UK (under Section 97a of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act), with Sky following BT in blocking Newzbin2. Italy, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands also implement blocking. In Ireland, music rights group IRMA has filed a high court action to compel the government to block sites, and a statutory instrument enabling injunctions is expected. Several of these states already block rogue sites at the DNS level. ®
Updated to add
* The Comon article has since dropped the term "local IFPI" from its piece. It also no longer appears in the Google-translated version.
