The music industry is still struggling against piracy, and it seems like federal judges are here to help. Recently, they decided on the new royalty rates for CDs and other physical types of recordings and, as a premiere, set a couple of standards for Internet downloads, ring tones and the like.

The prices ruled upon, however, will only bring profit to songwriters and publishers. The singers and performers don’t get anything out of the deal. The rates established by the panel of judges for recorded tracks sold in physical shape are the same as the track one can download off iTunes or Amazon.com.

In a nutshell, the rate for both types of tracks are of 9.1 cents, while master tones (which are a more accurate ring tone, as they are a recorded part of the actual song, adapted to the phone’s configuration) go up to 24 cents a piece. These rates will be available until 2012.

The rates weren’t met with that much enthusiasm, unfortunately. Publishers, labels and retailers fear these high rates might deter the already few remaining customers of physical recordings. Apple officials said iTunes might be threatened to close because of this increase in royalty rates. It would obviously be a great loss to the legal downloading industry, as iTunes sold $5 billion songs since its opening.

Last week, lobbying groups (among which Digital Media Association and the Recording Industry Association of America) settled upon establishing a new plan to improve the current situation the music industry finds itself in. The plan entails setting different rates for the non-permanent forms of music.

Officials are on the fence about these decisions. It’s unclear whether these changes will return the music industry to its original, thriving state.