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The Justice Department has intensified its antitrust investigation of the unison industriousnesss licensing pr conductices, demanding that industry organizations and online companies submit a slew of documents related to Internet unison operate.The segment recently began sending out "civil investigative demand" letters, hunt down for evidence of collusion by record companies and affiliates to impede competition. The recipients of the letters admit the Recording Industry Assn. of America, at least two Internet companies and MusicNet, an online music distributor jointly owned by three major labels and RealNetworks Inc.A copy of one letter obtained by The magazines indicates that antitrust investigators are looking at all the terms proposed by the record companies and music publishers for their licenses, as surface as the lawsuits they threatened, brought or sett lead over online music. other issue being explored is the contentious negotiations over online radio servic es. The major labels manoeuver the copyrights to most of the recordings that consumers buy, while the publishers control the songwriters copyrights. That control gives the labels and publishers the power to dictate which companies plunder offer interactive or on-demand music services online, as well as influencing their prices and terms of use.The growing demand for online music services has led the conglomerates that own the major record companies to create their own channels for distribution. AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI Group formed MusicNet, and Universal Music Group and Sony Corp. created Pressplay.The inquiry appears to wave around two questions Why are MusicNet and Pressplay the only ventures to receive licenses for a significant amount of major-label music? And what, if anything, did the labels do to inflate their royalties from online radio services?The record companies defenders say the labels have been cautious in licensing, but they havent colluded to bourn c ompetition. "I dont see it, and I havent experienced it," said Robin D. Richards, chairwoman and chief executive of MP3.com, a maverick online music company that was acquired in August by Vivendi Universal and has a distribution deal with Pressplay. only when executives at several online companies say they have had mixed experiences with the labels and that some act fairly and some dont. The result, they say, is that the labels online ventures--MusicNet and Pressplay--are launching this year without any real competition.The industrys licensing practices withal have drawn criticism from some influential lawmakers, including leaders of the domicile and Senate Judiciary committees. In addition, the federal judge presiding over the industrys copyright-infringement lawsuit against Napster Inc.