Google has filed a cease and desist against the creator of Groovy, a popular music bot on the voice messaging service Discord.
Groovy allowed Discord users to add music to the platform’s chat rooms. Users could install Groovy on a server, add YouTube links to its command centre and then play them for everyone else in the chat room to hear. The app was popular amongst those who organise virtual Dungeons & Dragons events, as Groovy provided the perfect way to create ambience.
The developers of Groovy will shutter the tool on August 30, at which point Discord users will have to look elsewhere for shared music on Discord. Groovy was reportedly installed on over 16 millions servers, which is impressive considering as of May this year there were only 6.7million active Discord groups. This number is not static though, as groups come and go each day.
Here's some sad news from the creators of Groovy bot, here's also something to note in the replies.https://t.co/dlfuyitNvX pic.twitter.com/4MEF9jjEgD
— Upcoming Discord (@UpcomingDiscord) August 24, 2021
The bots creator Nik Ammerlaan spoke on Discord about the closure, and isn’t surprised by the cease and desist: “It was just a matter of seeing when it would happen. They probably just didn’t know about it, to be honest.”
“Groovy has been a huge part of my life over the past five years. It started because my friend’s bot sucked and I thought I could make a better one,” commented Ammerlaan. Groovy’s creator also admitted that the bot has been a “huge weight” on his shoulders for the past five years.
A spokesperson for Google spoke to The Verge, who initially reported the closure, about the reasoning behind the cease and desist. According to Google, Groovy violated YouTube’s terms of service by “modifying the service and using it for commercial purposes”.
Elsewhere, the State Of California has expanded its ongoing Activision Blizzard lawsuit to include contracted and temporary workers.
The post Cease and desist kills popular Discord music bot Groovy appeared first on NME.
