Beatles v. BlueBeat: The Beat Stops Here

The saga continues in the case of legendary rock group The Beatles versus a little known online music retailer named BlueBeat. In case you haven’t been following, BlueBeat has been selling Beatles tracks on the cheap at 25 cents a pop. The Beatles are notoriously protective of their music and have yet to allow any outside entity to sell their music. Not even Apple, creator of the hugely popular iTunes could get the band’s permission even though Apple Inc. and Apple Corp. have been in talks about possibly making the deal happen.The Beatles did release their music with an apple however. Last week, the band announced that the entire Beatles catalog would be sold on a limited edition apple-shaped USB.

But these things paid BlueBeat no never mind as they continued to make their ill-gotten gain on the Beatles’ hard days night (sorry, I couldn’t resist!). Things were going good until the Fab Four got wind of their nefarious dealings and got the lawyers involved. Taking the matter to court, a judge hit BlueBeat with a temporary restraining order barring any more sales until the matter is argued in court.

According to PCWorld, BlueBeat owner Hank Risan thinks that he owns the rights to the tracks he’s been selling because he’s not selling the original tracks, but rather a “psycho-acoustic simulation”. Which basically means that he should be let off the hook because similar to tribute bands and impersonators, he’s selling a re-recording of the original tracks. So far the argument seems to be a bunch of hooey as the judge put the kibash on further sales of the allegedly faux tracks until the case is heard in a Los Angeles court on November 20.

Do you think BlueBeat can pull it off or do you think The Beatles will be vindicated? Make your voice heard in the comments section.