Music streaming service Grooveshark has become the latest casualty of copyright law, courtesy of executives trying to boost its catalogue in its start-up days.

In a summary ruling that decides a case launched in 2011, The New York Times reports, Manhattan federal district judge Thomas Griesa entered a filing of direct infringement against the company.

The Grooveshark service lets subscribers upload music, relying on ads for its revenue. The streamer had relied on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as its defence. Since it complied with take-down notices, it argued, its activities were protected.

What wasn't protected under the DMCA, the judge found, was the uploads placed on the service by the company's own executives, Samuel Tarantino (CEO) and Joshua Greenberg (CTO), who between them dropped nearly 6,000 songs into the service.

Those activities were direct infringements rather than the actions of third parties, so the safe-harbour provisions of the DMCA didn't apply.

Judge Griesa also took a swipe at the company destroying evidence, the NYT says, including lists of files the two had uploaded.

According to Reuters, evidence against the executives included a 2007 memo in which they asked staff to upload as much stuff as they could, while outside the office, to help the service grow in its early days.

“By overtly instructing its employees to upload as many files as possible to Grooveshark as a condition of their employment, Escape engaged in purposeful conduct with a manifest intent to foster copyright infringement via the Grooveshark service,” the judge said.

The plaintiffs in the case were Arista Music, Arista Records, Atlantic Recording, Elektra Entertainment Group, LaFace Records, Sony Music Entertainment, UMG Recording, Warner Brothers Records and Zomba Recording.

Damages will be decided at a future date, and the two sides of the case have 21 days to propose permanent injunctions to put a stop to further infringements.

Grooveshark's lawyers also told Reuters they would consider an appeal. ®