ASCAP settles with U.S. over music licensing

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, better known as the music licensing firm ASCAP, agreed to pay $1.75 million to settle a Justice Department charge that it blocked members from independently licensing their songs, the department said on Thursday. ASCAP said that the settlement would allow it to press on with talks with the department over how to amend a decades-old consent decree that governs how songwriters are paid. Under the settl