Judge Orders Site to Stop Selling Beatles Tracks

By Jane McEntegart, published on November 6, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , , , | Themes: The Internet, Audio/Video Players
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The Beatles just got a teeny, tiny bit more digital with the launch of an Apple-shaped USB stick containing the entire Beatles catalog. However, that's about as digital as things are going to get for fans of the Fab Four for now.

EMI Music this week won an injunction against Bluebeats.com, a site the label said is selling Beatles music without permission. Bluebeats.com claims it's not actually selling Beatles music, rather it's actually offering 25c a song downloads of re-recorded tracks.

Bluebeats.com's lawyer is reportedly basing the site's defense on "psychoacoustic simulation," an "arcane" technology that supposedly produces music enables it to sell music that sounds identical to recordings without actually infringing on any copyrights.

It all sounds a bit sketchy to us but there's a court hearing scheduled for November 20. We expect to hear all about "psychoacoustic simulation," and how copyright laws don't apply to songs produced using the mysterious technology then but for now, Bluebeats is not allowed to sell the tracks.

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kyeana 11/06/2009 7:52 PM
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Good luck getting that one to fly...

Jerther 11/06/2009 7:53 PM
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Quote :enables it to sell music that sounds identical to recordings without actually infringing on any copyrights


Yeah, try to have the artists eat that......

commandersozo 11/06/2009 7:59 PM
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Just like torrenting is "psychodigital file reproduction." I get it.

worst 3 11/06/2009 8:02 PM
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good luck

but when the music is stored in 1 and 0 how many 1 and 0 different makes it not the same.

exar333 11/06/2009 8:07 PM
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Go for it, the Beatles are crap anyways.

homrqt 11/06/2009 8:21 PM
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Hey the guy is a lawyer. He's paid to come up with an answer. This just happened to be kind of a flimsy answer.

ssalim 11/06/2009 8:22 PM
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It's not going to fly. psychoacoustic is made up of 1 and 0... which in the end is atom. Music is also made up of atom. So they are all the same. They don't have permission to sell.

Jerther 11/06/2009 8:41 PM
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ssalim :
It's not going to fly. psychoacoustic is made up of 1 and 0... which in the end is atom. Music is also made up of atom. So they are all the same. They don't have permission to sell.


Aren't atoms patented by Gene Simmons already?

hellwig 11/06/2009 8:57 PM
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Quote :Bluebeats.com's lawyer is reportedly basing the site's defense on "psychoacoustic simulation," an "arcane" technology that supposedly produces music enables it to sell music that sounds identical to recordings without actually infringing on any copyrights.


Images can be manipulated to a certain extent to no longer be considered infringing on a copyright. Therefore, the same should apply to music. Of course, unless they changed the lyrics somewhat, it doesn't really matter what it sounds like. Music is a complex beast. There's the actual performance (the guitar riffs, drum solos, vocal talent) that are aural pieces of work (like a painting is visual), but then the lyrics themselves are protected like a book.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this, asusming the judge isn't just a Beatles fan and instantly rules in Apple Corp's favor.

rooket 11/06/2009 9:17 PM
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back_by_demand 11/07/2009 12:12 PM
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