Trying to clone an illegal music site that was soundly crushed by the RIAA in court probably wasn't the best idea, and now Grooveshark's unofficial mirrors have met a similar legal defeat. TorrentFreak reports that a New York federal court has hit those responsible with $13 million in piracy damages for trying to resurrect the music site before eventually abandoning the ill-advised plan. Whoever's behind the clone(s) never showed up in court — they haven't yet been identified — giving the labels an easy "default judgement" victory.

Aside from the $13 million in damages (that's the maximum $150,000 penalty granted for all 89 songs cited in the complaint) TorrentFreak says that the operators have also been ordered to pay an added $4 million for "willful counterfeiting of two Grooveshark marks and another $400,000 for cybersquatting" and trying to cash in on Grooveshark-related domains. That's assuming the RIAA ever figures out who's behind the cloned sites. After restoring Grooveshark's functionality to much fanfare, those operators eventually went quiet and pulled it all down not long after, probably sensing the RIAA's inevitable pursuit.