Taking the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, movie and music plaintiffs ostensibly won the case in June, when the Court ruled that the objective behind Grokster’s service was " unlawful” and “unmistakable."
Grokster’s site had remained open until the final settlement was reached today.
Visitors to Grokster’s site are now met with a brief summary of the court’s decision:
“The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that using this service to trade copyrighted material is illegal,” the site says. “There are legal services for downloading music and movies. This service is not one of them.”
The site includes a link to a page touting a new version of Grokster supposedly in development. The new version, called Grokster 3G, plans to offer legal downloads, though company representatives gave no word as to when the new service would launch.
Spokespeople for the music and movie industries lauded the closure.
“At the end of the day, this is about our ability to invest in new music,” said Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America. “An online marketplace populated by legitimate services allows us to do just that.”
In the settlement reached after the Supreme Court’s decision, Grokster has been permanently barred from distributing content from any of the nearly 30,000 music publishers, songwriters and movie producers listed as plaintiffs in the case.
Grokster had previously argued it was akin to an unwitting middleman in the case and that it was not responsible for the content shared through its system.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to submit the settlement to the Federal District Court in Los Angeles today for final approval.
