Department of "woohoo!": Pandora is alive, for a bit.

We were all worried about the future of Pandora.  Thank God that the government took some time off of fixing the economy to work on online music licensing.  

NYtimes: "Web Radio Bill Passed"

"Under the terms of the Webcaster Settlement Act, which was passed by the House on Saturday and now goes to President Bush for his signature, Web broadcasters have until Feb. 15 to negotiate with SoundExchange, the agency that collects and distributes the royalty. Under the current rate set by federal statute last year, said Tim Westergren, one of Pandora’s founders, his site has had to pay 70 percent of its gross revenue for this performance royalty, and will have to shut down if it is not reduced."

Pandora.com