Bizarre Beatles Song-Selling Defense: Techies Created—and Can Copyright—New Tunes
The music of the Beatles isn’t legally available on the Internet. However, a little-known company is not only offering the back catalog of the famous 1960s rock ‘n’ roll group online but is trying to copyright it, based on what Ars Technica’s Law & Disorder blog characterizes as a “entertainingly weird” legal theory.
The theory is explained in the federal copyright action that almost immediately resulted. It was filed Tuesday in the Central District of California with other music company plaintiffs by EMI Christian Music Group Inc., the company that controls the sale of Beatles music on CDs. BlueBeat and its backing company, Media Rights Technologies, responded yesterday.
By using new “psycho-acoustic simulation” technology to copy the classic Beatles songs and adding some new images into the MP3 files, MRT contends, it creates new “audio-visual works” that can not only be legally sold but qualify for copyright protection.
“I authored the sound recordings that are being used by psycho-acoustic simulation,” explains Hank Risan, who heads MRT, to the general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America in a recent e-mail. “I hope this satisfies your concerns.”
It didn’t, of course. An outraged EMI is seeking a restraining order preventing further BlueBeat sales of Beatles songs in what it contends is not only copyright infringement but blatant piracy, Law & Disorder recounts.
Responds MRT in its filing:
“Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits because defendants’ website markets and sells an entirely different sound recording than that copyrighted by plaintiffs. Section 114(b) of the Copyright Act explicitly states that the fixation of other sounds than those in a copyrighted sound recording does not constitute a copyright violation.”
U.S. District Judge apparently wasn’t any more persuaded by this argument than Law & Disorder: He granted a restraining order against BlueBeat today, reports Epicenter blog of Wired magazine.
Epicenter provides links both to the complaint (PDF) and the judge’s order (PDF).
Damages in the Los Angeles copyright case could total in the millions of dollars, Epicenter says.
Additional coverage:
Law & Disorder: “Judge hits Beatles MP3 seller with restraining order”
Updated at 7:15 p.m. to include information from Epicenter and subsequent Law & Disorder posts.
