performance rights

A few years back, we covered the legal fight pitting ASCAP against Yahoo and RealNetworks, where the two internet companies were told to pay up based on a ridiculously arbitrary fee formula, including a totally made up multiplier called the "music-use-adjustment-fraction." The really scary part was that it calculated the revenue based on all of Yahoo's revenue.

Earlier this month, a deal between Internet radio providers and the record labels at long last provided some clarity around the long-term prospects for the medium.