The plaintiffs allege that Warner's calculations of royalties relating to digital music are incorrect because digital purchases that are classed as sales instead of licenses on their songs under the laws of record contracts signed earlier in their careers before the advent of digital music.

Billboard.biz goes on to explain that 'songwriters typically make much less money when an album is "sold" than they do when their music is "licensed" (the rationale derives from the costs that used to be ...