We have had some SIRIUS S50 portable device coverage here in the past including Kevin Tofel's post on the last minute changes they made in response to RIAA intervention, and now we got news of an agreement concerning the device. SIRIUS and Universal Music Group have reached an agreement over the S50's ability to separate individual songs from the satellite stream into individual MP3 files.

Music industry leaders were concerned that the ability to save songs individually was a lost chance at being able to sell that song. The music industry wants their money and felt they should be getting paid for these lost sale opportunities. Record labels had threatened to sue SIRIUS over the S50 device for copyright violations. Back in December an agreement was reached to extend the deadline to work out the final deal.

The final details are not known, but it seem that SIRIUS will be compensating Universal Music Group and avoiding any legal proceedings. These charges are not going to be passed onto the SIRIUS subscribers. This deal is expected to serve as a basis for similar deals with other record companies, and since the current deal only covers the S50, most likely it will also be used as the template for other devices in the future.