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NY Court Eases Discovery Burden for Music Streaming Site

By Andrew Longstreth

Ever since the definitive appellate rulings in the Napster and Grokster cases, big entertainment companies have pretty much had their way with tech startups in copyright infringement battles ' for instance, the recent resounding win a group of record companies scored in New York federal district court against the file sharing service LimeWire, now perilously close to being shut down.

But in June, there was news of a victory (albeit a small one) for the little guy. The underlying case against Escape Media, owner of the Grooveshark.com music streaming site, was filed in New York state court in January by Universal Music Group (UMG), which accused Escape of copyright infringement and unfair competition. UMG asserted that Escape made UMG-owned, pre-1972, songs from artists such artists as Buddy Holly, The Carpenters, Cat Stevens, Chuck Berry, The Jackson Five, The Mamas and the Papas, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations and The Who available to its users without paying a license fee.

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