Pat,
It affects everyone who makes their living writing songs, including me. The perception of how much money songwriters make is grossly exaggerated. Often the assumption is that the artist writes their own material (very often the case these days, not so much in the past). The lawsuits can, and will, be filed regardless of the amount of actual income the song makes - because the plaintiffs typically don't have a clue how much money is actually in play.

I've been threatened with lawsuits over album cuts, and that was back in the day when you made pretty good money off of those. Fortunately I had my paperwork in order to the point where they went away, but this precedent is dangerous and makes everyone who has ever had a song recorded potentially a defendant.

I had a Patty Loveless cut a number of years ago that I wrote by myself, an album cut. I made less than $300. Why would I, or any other writer, risk getting sued for that kind of money? As I said somewhere else, the average legal expense incurred just to get a frivolous infringement claim thrown out is $30,000 - the cost skyrockets if the claim is determined to have merit. I had a co-writing appointment just this week with a hall of fame songwriter who told me he was going to retire because of the Katy Perry case. He said it's just not worth the risk of getting sued this late in life.

It's going to have a serious and dramatic effect on the profession of songwriting.

http://www.rogerbrownsongs.com
http://www.nashvillesongwriters.com/roger-brown