Grooveshark has a lot in common with Megaupload. Though one was a file sharing and cloud storage site, and the other is a music streaming service, both are prime targets of Hollywood and the recording industry. Grooveshark claims that it’s protected under the DMCA safe harbor, but so did Megaupload. Are we seeing early signs that Grooveshark will be going the way of Megaupload?

Today a Danish court ruled in favor of a congolomorate of entertainment companies, which was trying to force an ISP to block Grooveshark. The junction was granted, and Danish telecom company ’3′ is now legally obligated to block its customers from accessing the streaming service.

The issue was pressed by RettighedsAlliancen: an alliance of entertainment companies, which supposedly picked ’3′ “randomly” to set a precedent. The group is hoping, now that ’3′ has been forced by courts to oblige, that other Danish ISPs will follow suit and voluntarily block Grooveshark. RettighedsAlliancen is made up of Danish copyright companies, and there is no documented connection to the US recording industry (though we don’t imagine they would object to the group’s actions).

Should Grooveshark users in the US, UK, and elsewhere be concerned? Grooveshark is being sued by all of the major US record labels — including EMI, the only one that it has a deal with — so the service is in the recording industry’s crosshairs. Denmark does, however, have different laws from the US. This kind of action would have been par-for-the-course if SOPA/PIPA had passed, but they are temporarily shelved.

Grooveshark has survived this long by skirting around the DMCA safe harbor. It says that a website or service can avoid legal trouble if it complies with takedown requests of user-uploaded copyrighted content in a timely manner. This is the same loophole that YouTube has used successfully, and that analogy has been made often by Grooveshark.

Barring a SOPA reprisal, Grooveshark may be in the clear for a while. Megaupload got taken down because the Feds supposedly have evidence that the site’s employees were intentionally allowing copyrighted content, and uploading some of it themselves. Grooveshark — and other similar companies — will probably be smart about covering any tracks after the Megaupload takedown.

With that said, we wouldn’t advise Grooveshark customers to pay for a full year of service in advance. Month-to-month plans may be the smarter bet — just in case.

via Torrent Freak

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