Grokster bites the dust

Grokster has paid a $50m settlement to the Recording Industry Association of America

File sharing service Grokster has shut up shop for the time being and paid a $50m settlement to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Grokster was one of the most vocal proponents of the P2P file sharing system, but a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of P2P traffic has forced it to close.

A statement on the Grokster website said that a legal music download service is planned for the future. 

"It was more a question of when, rather than if, Grokster would reach some kind of settlement with the RIAA," said Jonathan Arber, research analyst at Ovum's Consumer Telecoms practice.

"Now that it has settled, it seems likely that Morpheus and the few other holdouts will be close behind, rather than face the expense of further legal wrangling from which they are likely to emerge the losers.

"The music industry will certainly be keen to put an end to the past few years' litigation, and send a message to users that getting something for nothing is no longer possible."

The Supreme Court ruling has already forced popular P2P networks eDonkey and WinMX to close, while Australian network Kazaa is facing legal problems of its own.