Grokster is no more! The file sharing service has shut down, and has paid a $50m settlement to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The move comes as little of a surprise to analysts.
"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."
A Supreme Court ruling on the legality of P2P traffic has forced this shutdown, as Grokster joins popular P2P networks eDonkey and WinMX who were also shutdown. The P2P file sharing system will be loosing one of its more vocal advocates.