(sub. req.) Yep, that’s the sound of SightSound coming after your music and movie download stores…Bertelsmann Music subsidiaries CDNow and N2K have agreed not to contest a series of patents held by SightSound Technologies covering the commercial downloading of music over the Internet.

The retailers did not acknowledge any prior infringing activity related to their sale of music downloads, but agreed to pay SightSound $3.3 million.

This paves the way for Mt. Lebanon, Pa.-based SightSound to challenge other online merchants offering paid downloads of movies and music, including such studio-backed initiatives as Movielink and Apple’s iTunes service.