insult to injury for internet radio?

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has reached a settlement with radio station owners, allowing them to have a simultaneous internet feed of their stations without paying royalties on top of what they already pay for their traditional radio broadcasting. I think that’s what this says:

Music Publishers Sign Deal on Web Radio

Now I don’t really understand this or know anything, but wasn’t there a big dust-up a while ago when some judge decided that all of the independant internet-only radio stations that had sprung up were going to have to start paying ASCAP a lot of money? Wasn’t part of the problem that they were actually going to have to pay more to broadcast a given song than conventional radio radio pays? Didn’t it mean that hundreds of internet only stations were forced off the air?

So if radio radio stations can now simultaneously broadcast on the intenet for free… does that mean that internet radio stations have to pay a lot for what radio radio stations can do for free? Have the courst just forced the entreprenuers completley out, and then handed the keys to the kingdom to the old school?

Am I really frustrated?

Somebody figure this out and get back to me.

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