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The District Court for the Southern District of New York said that the three companies must remunerate American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for "the online performance of musical works" going back to July 2002.

The decision orders the companies to had over 2.5% of their revenues from music services, payments that could total $100 million.

ASCAP president

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and chairman Marilyn Bergman said that the ruling is a major step toward proper valuation of the contributions of songwriters, composers and publishers.

"It is critical that these organisations share a reasonable portion of their sizable revenues with those of us whose content attracts audiences and, ultimately, helps to make their businesses viable," he said. "This decision will go a long way toward protecting the ability of songwriters and composers to be compensated fairly as the use of musical works online continues to grow."

But Real Networks insisted that the ruling does not mean that royalties will be paid any time soon. Real's general counsel Bob Kimball said that the judge has merely provided a framework for talks.

"This is a long way from being over," Kimball said. "To be clear, the court did not award $100 million in royalties."

Yahoo and AOL were not available for comment.

[photo by jrossol]