And if there weren't so many unrepentant theives, they wouldn't have developed that way.
ASCAP has been taken to terms for their methods a number of times, yes. But most of the time, they protect the copyrights of thousands of small songwriters, composers, and publishers who often have only their royalties to show as income.
In this case, we had a nightclub -- a place that makes money from selling drinks in an atmosphere of MUSIC and dancing -- ignoring repeated requests for the club to pay the songwriters for the performance of their work (notice, Kravitz and Ciccone are listed as songwriters in the case, not as recording artists). As a dance club, their business atomosphere *depended* upon music -- come for the dancing, buy the drinks while you're there....
When they felt too good to pay for something they made money with, and continued to ignore ASCAP, ASCAP sued. And I think they're in the right this time.