New York - The major players in contentious negotiations over digital music royalties, which pit music publishers, record labels and digital music services against one another, have reached a settlement on two of five major issues, Billboard reported, citing an account from David Israelite, president and CEO of the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA).

New York - A federal judge in New York has created a formula for calculating the royalties that large webcasters AOL (NYSE: TWX), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) must pay songwriters and music publishers for streaming their songs between 2002 and 2009, which could provide just one performing rights organization, ASCAP, as much as $100 million in payments. U.S. District Judge William Conner's ruling stipulates that the webcasters must pay 2.5% of music-related revenue to ASCAP's 320,000 members; by that math, for 2006, AOL owes $5.95 million, and Yahoo owes $6.76 million.

Washington - Several members of the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) on Wednesday filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against MediaNet, a company that powers digital music services for Microsoft, Yahoo, MTV and others, claiming they failed to obtain proper licenses for use of songwriters' and publishers' works.

Washington - The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) began hearing arguments from music publishers, record labels, and digital music distributors on Monday, on how much songwriters and music publishers should be paid when music is streamed or downloaded, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents the interests of large webcasters including AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo, has hired Greg Barnes, former senior counsel to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, to become the association's legislative counsel and director of government affairs. "We look forward to having Greg on board as we continue to help digital media companies achieve a regulatory and business environment that supports industry growth, creative and technological innovation and greater consumer enjoyment of digital content," DiMA executive director Jonathan Potter.

Washington - The Digital Media Association (DiMA), which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, (NASD: YHOO) AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Microsoft (NASD: MSFT), has filed a brief asking the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to refer the question of whether or not an interactive music stream needs a separate "reproduction" license, in addition to the performance license they already pay, to the U.S. Copyright Office, Billboard reported. "Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only," DiMA said in a statement, referring to the license that both webcasters and radio broadcasters pay to performing rights organizations ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

Washington - Large Internet radio purveyors AOL (NYSE: TWX), Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), RealNetworks (NASD: RNWK), Pandora and Live365 earlier this week sent a letter to key lawmakers in Washington, asking them to consider performance royalty parity for broadcast, satellite, cable and Internet radio. The letter was addressed to U.S. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), whose committees are currently re-evaluating the broadcast radio industry's royalty rate exemption.

Washington - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has released a briefing schedule for the appeal of webcasting royalty rates filed by various webcasters, which will begin in February but is not likely to be resolved until sometime in 2009, according to the Broadcast Law blog.

New York - Some involved in the prickly royalty negotiations between music webcasters and the major record labels believe that issues could be resolved as early as the end of September, the Associated Press reported.

New York - The Digital Media Association (DiMA) -- which represents large webcasters like AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora -- announced on Thursday that it has reached agreements with SoundExchange on several thorny issues related to the disputed royalty rates for streaming music online.

Washington - After appearing to have reached a tentative deal last week on one of the more contentious new webcasting royalty rate hikes, the Digital Media Association (DiMA) -- which represents large webcasters like Yahoo and AOL -- said it will not accept an offer from SoundExchange to reduce a minimum per-channel fee cap that includes "unrelated technology mandates that have previously been rejected several times."

Washington - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday denied webcasters' motions to delay the implementation of new royalty rates for streaming music while their appeal of the rates is heard.

Washington - Organizers of yesterday's national Web radio Day of Silence -- observed by more than 14,000 webcasters to protest higher royalty rates -- said on Thursday that nearly 400,000 phone calls were placed to members of Congress on Wednesday, calling on them to support legislation that would vacate the new royalty rates.

Washington - Facing significantly higher royalty rates, thousands of webcasters are planning to protest by shuttering their stations for a day next week.

Washington - Top executives at large webcasters Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora on Thursday sent a letter to Congress, asking for additional focus on the results of a Copyright Royalty Board decision that raised rates webcasters must pay to stream music online.

Washington - A group of large and small webcasters, including NPR and those represented by the Digital Media Association (DiMA), on Wednesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to suspend the date on which new, higher webcasting royalty rates are due to take effect, until the court hears the webcasters' appeal of those rates.

Washington - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) on Thursday introduced a bill that would vacate the recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision that would greatly increase royalties webcasters must pay to stream music online.

Washington - A bipartisan pair of lawmakers on Thursday introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act, a bill intended to nullify the effects of new, higher royalty rates recently set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) that many music webcasters say will put them out of business.

New York - A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that digital music and media downloads are not "public performances," and therefore should not be subject to a public performance license and additional royalty payment.