Ok, so if JR was willing to pay X to acquire the domain freedb.org and the asking price was 20X, then it makes sense to spend X internally to integrate the current freedb.org database into yadb.
JR could even implement the freedb protocols at a new url, maybe something like yadb.com/freedb [port:whatever]. Set up the server to give search and bandwidth priorities to requests that come from a registered copy of Media Center, any other users get 'slower' service.
Sustaining the freedb.org protocols could be as simple as opening a new sourceforge project and depositing the current source tarballs.
Another thought; how about opening up a sourceforge project for a software package that implements yadb, freedb, and cddb protocols in a combined module? Something like that might get a load of attention.
At the end of the day, it's data projects like this that Google is snapping up left and right. Not to say that Google wouldn't be a good on-going steward of the data. However, as 'data consolidators' they are starting to scare me with the sheer volume of info and the high-speed cress referencing capabilities they've built. All it would take is for Google to add a another field or three in their databases and suddenly they are tracking a significant percentage of the data exchanges made on the internet identifyable by the individual, IP address, and date/time.