UMG sues Grooveshark

THE NEW LIMEWIRE? UMG has sued Grooveshark parent company Escape Media Group, alleging the company and its executives personally uploaded thousands of songs onto the streaming service, which doesn't pay royalties to most labels, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 93-page lawsuit accuses Escape Media, CEO Sam Tarantino and six other executives of making a "brazen decision to infringe UMG's copyrighted sound recordings." It also quotes an email from Chairman Sina Simantob to a potential investor that says, in part, "We are achieving all this growth without paying a dime to any of the labels." The suit, which seeks financial penalties and unspecified punitive damages, was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Friday. "Grooveshark didn't build its business legitimately," a Universal spokesman wrote in an email to WSJ’s Ethan Smith. "Its business is built on willful infringement." Technology companies have been wary of embracing Grooveshark. Google removed the company's apps from its Android marketplace, and Apple doesn't sell an iPhone app for Grooveshark on its store. (11/22a)