As reported today in NYTimes MediaDecoder blog, several major record labels have sued Grooveshark for admittedly unlicensed music uploaded by Grooveshark users.
Grooveshark actually has license deals with many major records labels, including even a related entity to one of the plaintiffs.
The copyright rub is that there is alleged evidence that Grooveshark itself directed its employees to upload unlicensed music.
I modestly refer to my recent post highlighting the article of Professor Haochen Sun, “Fair Use as a Collective Right”, which argues that Fair Use is a collective right of the community, and not of any one entity.
Although the Grooveshark litigation presents slightly different issues than the thrust of the Sun article, I suggest that the result ought to be the same.
The sharing community created by Grooveshark is an embodiment of this collective right, and Grooveshark’s own misconduct must be addressed seprately from its right to exist.
