Grooveshark speaks out as it prepares to appeal copyright lawsuit

Days after a US judge ruled against online music service Grooveshark in a lawsuit brought by music labels, the company has issued a statement disagreeing with the decision and declaring its intent to appeal.

Earlier in the week, Grooveshark had said it was looking into the possibility of an appeal, but the company now says it is “preparing for the appeal process.” Grooveshark says the complaint is related to an “early iteration” of the service that has since been discontinued.

In the meantime, the company has pledged to continue operating its business “ethically and honestly – with first-to-market technology as we have done since 2006.”

That’s quite the claim, considering that evidence from the trial showed Grooveshark CTO Joshua Greenberg had threatened employees with his, “sh*t list” if they didn’t “download as many MP3s as possible” and share them on the service. Grooveshark certainly seems to have an uphill battle ahead of it.

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Here’s the full statement:

Grooveshark cannot comment on our current litigation but I can say we are  preparing for the appeal process.  We can say that we will continue to operate our business ethically and honestly — with first-to-market technology as we have done since 2006. I can also say Grooveshark’s current service has provided millions of dollars in revenue to artists and labels globally.

This decision dealt specifically with an early iteration of Grooveshark which we discontinued in 2008 in favor of our current music streaming service.  In turn, we respectfully disagree with the decision, and we are assessing next steps, which will all focus on remaining extremely committed to ensuring we respect artist and songwriter copyrights.

Prior to 2008, the service was a paid music download platform that functioned like a “Buy-Sell-Trade” store, in which users paid for individual tracks. This is very different from the model of our current popular music streaming service, modeled off of YouTube, in which users play songs directly through a browser without the capability of downloads.

We always knew that our service could serve as a powerful tool for labels to build engaged fan evangelism for artists. We prove this daily when we promote and socialize exclusive content to our global audience of nearly 30 million listeners. We want to support musicians just as we do our broadcasters and international partners. Grooveshark was built with the goal of connecting artists and rabid fans.

Our immediate plan of action will be to continue to serve our nearly 30 million listeners with exclusive music, brand promotions, new technology and new device partners — all exclusively for Grooveshark users — which again has been our core edict from day one.

Image credit: Stockbyte / Thinkstock