Google removes Grooveshark app from Android Market

NEWS

Google has removed Grooveshark's music app from the Android Market, a move that comes after some of the top music labels have accused the service of violating copyright law, sources said.

Google has removed the Grooveshark music app from the Android Market. Photo credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET News

"We remove apps from Android Market that violate our policies," a Google spokesman said in response to questions from ZDNet UK's sister site CNET News. He did not specify what violations Grooveshark may have committed or whether Google had been pressured by the music industry to remove the app.

Grooveshark, based in Gainesville, Florida, is a service that offers free music by enabling users to post their own tracks to the site and then share them with other users. The service, which boasts more than six million songs, was accused by EMI in a lawsuit of copyright violations, a case that was settled in 2009 when Grooveshark agreed to licence the label's catalog.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Google boots Grooveshark from Android Market on CNET News.