Legal deal to put music back on the web

Napster says it's time to go straight...

Music publishers and record labels are close to tying-up the remaining legal loose ends preventing the launch of digital music services over the internet. According to the Wall Street Journal, publishers and record labels came to a tentative agreement Friday for a deal that could pave the way for subscription-based music services over the internet. All major record labels were represented in the deal, which will involve an advance fee of $1m being paid to music publishers for the right to distribute music on the web. The decision is important if legal, copyright-respecting services are to begin. Earlier this year file-sharing service Napster was shut down because a preliminary injunction by a judge ruled it had to stop facilitating the distribution of copyrighted music. Napster has said for some time it wishes to re-launch as a subscription-based, legal service, but so far has made no move. Now backed by media giant Bertelsmann it has said it will have a service up by the end of the year. Bertelsmann, along with AOL Time Warner and EMI, has also invested in a web-based music joint venture called MusicNet, which is also yet to launch. The two remaining major labels - Sony and Vivendi's subsidiary Universal- also have plans to launch a similar service. It is believed the deal will go a long way toward clearing up the remaining legal issues holding back these services.