Ah, the Napster dispute. Who'd have thought we'd still be reporting on that five years to the day that the original Napster flew to the world wide web in the sky, via the purgatory-esque bankruptcy courts, of course.
As you may remember, even once the original Napster had bitten the dust, the record labels and music publishers continued to do what they do best - sue. They turned their lawyers' attention to venture capital types Hummer Winblad and BMG owner Bertelsmann because they had both provided funding to the P2P firm in its final phase, mainly in a bid to help the Napster chiefs develop a legitimate royalty paying P2P network. Of course the original Napster went bankrupt before those ambitions could be realised - mainly because the other record labels and music publishers didn't want a legit Napster - them preferring the option of creating a content vacuum so that Kazaa and Limewire could step in to continue the supply of illegal music (otherwise there'd be no one to blame for the record companies' short-sighted CD reliant business strategies, and as we all know, dumb ass business strategies rely on there being something to blame when everything goes to pot).
The other record labels and publishers claimed that Hummer Winblad and Bertelsmann, through its financial assistance, had helped the original Napster last longer than they otherwise would have been able to, and should therefore accept some liability for the copyright violation committed via the Napster network during that time - for what legal types like to call "secondary copyright infringement". Hummer Winblad and Bertelsmann denied those allegations and promptly counter-sued, and the legal wranglings have continued ever since (Bertelsmann said that they merely provided a loan to Napster which did not make them liable for the company's actions, the claimants argued that Bertelsmann planned to turn that loan into equity had Napster not gone under, and that therefore they were liable).
As the dispute has rumbled on over the years, Bertelsmann have slowly reached settlements with most of those who made claims against them, though without ever admitting liability. The final major record companies reached a settlement earlier this year, leaving only the publishing sector still seriously pursuing the case. The latest deal is with the big guy of the publishing sector - the US mechanical rights organisation the Harry Fox Agency, which represents over 27,000 music publishers (including BMG Music Publishing, though they were good enough to not sue on their behalf).
Specifics of the latest deal, which needs to be approved by the San Francisco courts, are not known, although it is reportedly worth $130 million.