"Radio broadcasters and music labels are at each other's throats over the question of whether radio ought to pay "performance rights" to rightsholders when it plays their music on the air (currently, only songwriters get paid, not artists or labels). And Congress has a plan to settle the issue: lock both sides into a Capitol Hill conference room for a couple of weeks until a negotiated compromise is reached, then vote on whatever the two sides decide. The Performance Rights Act would clear up a discrepancy in performance rights; satellite radio and webcasters currently pay performance fees to artists, but radio does not, thanks to a longstanding exemption in copyright law. The bill has already been approved by the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, so all that remains is to hold a vote in each chamber, and the PRA could become law." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet