Grooveshark finally stops swimming

After ten years of a liberal attitude to copyright, and battles with the music industry, Grooveshark has thrown in the metaphorical towel:

“Today we are shutting down Grooveshark.

We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service.

That was wrong. We apologize.
Without reservation.

As part of a settlement agreement with the major record companies, we have agreed to cease operations immediately, wipe clean all of the record companies’ copyrighted works and hand over ownership of this website, our mobile apps and intellectual property, including our patents and copyrights.”

Having spent so much time and money fighting the labels, I'm not entirely sure Grooveshark can really claim they're apologising "without reservation" - "with reluctance but, hey, what can you do" might be nearer the truth.