Music Ally

EMI’s copyright infringement lawsuit against US site BlueBeat is cranking into gear, and the latter’s defence will make your jaw drop. BlueBeat is arguing that it’s able to sell the Beatles back catalogue because it owns the copyrights!

Specifically, it claims it has used “psycho-acoustic simulation” to re-record the albums, while adding some pictures. Essentially, its argument is that by ripping the albums from CD while running them through its software, BlueBeat has created new works.

A judge has already slapped the site with a temporary restraining order forbidding it from selling Beatles albums or any EMI works until the court case gets underway on 20 November.

EMI has confirmed that it is suing US digital music store BlueBeat for copyright infringement, following news broken by Music Ally last week that it was selling Beatles albums as MP3s without a licence. However, intriguingly, EMI has also announced plans for the first ever legitimate digital distribution of the Beatles back catalogue – via apple-shaped USB drives.

BlueBeat first: EMI confirmed to Wired’s Epicenter blog that it has filed the copyright infringement suit against BlueBeat in a California US district court. The label had previously expressed anger at the news that the Fab Four were being sold online without its permission.

But what about those USB drives. EMI and Apple Corps made the announcement last night, revealing that they will sell 30,000 apple-shaped devices, with the 14 recently-remastered Beatles albums preloaded as FLAC and MP3 files. They go on sale on 7 November in Europe and 8 November in the US, with a price point of £200 in the UK and $279.99 in the US.

We have to admit, we’re baffled by this one. BlueBeat is a US-based site offering high-quality streams of full albums, as well as downloads for $0.25 a track. Its Facebook page promises to “stop the insanity of overpriced online music”, but it appears licensing deals aren’t on its agenda.

How do we know? Well, it’s streaming and selling the Beatles back catalogue for starters, with albums like Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band available for $3.25 as MP3s. AC/DC albums are also being sold and streamed on the service – another digital refusenik.

BlueBeat is apparently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Media Rights Technologies, a Californian firm run by Hank Risan, chairman of the Museum of Musical Instruments. The site and company has been around for years in different forms, but its latest incarnation doesn’t seem to have aroused the wrath of the music industry.

Well, not yet, anyway. But if they went after Grooveshark (and on this side of the pond, AllOfMP3), we sense they may be firing off letters to BlueBeat soon too.