American Society of Composers, Artists, and Performers awarded by court

A federal judge has ruled that the companies like America Online, Yahoo and Real Networks owe American Society of Composers, Artists, and Performers millions of dollars in royalties.

The court said that these companies which stream audio over the internet owe ASCAP as much as $100 million.

The court also said that they are now adopting ASCAP’s proposed method for calculating the cost of a blanket license.

U.S. District Court Judge William Conner added: “After consideration of all the factors above the court finds that a fee rate of 2.5 percent of applicant’s music-use adjusted revenue is reasonable. Such a rate would result in 2006 fees of approximately $5.95 million for AOL and $6.76 million for Yahoo.”

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