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MP3.com

has ended it’s legal dispute with Universal Records, paying the

out $53.4 million in damages, resulting from the company’s Mymp3.com

service. MP3.com also secured licenses from the Universal, the

largest record label conglomerate, and now have permission to

use all of their copyrighted material. The negotiations for the

deal lasted almost 48 hours.

Universal President Zach Horowitz

said the company "pursued this case to send a strong message

that copyrights will be protected."

"It was never our intent to

put MP3.com out of business with a judgment so large that it would

threaten their viability as a company," he said, "We

support the development of legitimate music businesses on the

Internet."

Mp3.com also similar licensing

deals with Warner Music Group, BMG, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment.

The service, which was originally

launched in January free of charge, will now offer two options.

"One will be a free service that uses advertising to generate

revenue but it will have restrictions on the amount of music you

can load in the service," MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson told

Reuters in an interview. A price for the service has yet to be

determined.