The Beatles, iTunes Music Store, Apple Computer, & Apple Corps

by , 4:00 PM EDT, June 3rd, 2003

Fox News has published a story by Roger Friedman dealing with Apple Computer and the Beatles. The story deals with The Beatles' music company known as Apple Corps, Ltd., and the well-known lawsuit between the Beatles and Apple Computer that resulted in a US$26 million payment to The Beatles and a promise not go into the music business. The story also touches specifically on why The Beatles' songs are not currently found on Apple's new iTunes Music Store (iMS). From the report:

One might assume that the exclusion of Beatles songs from the Apple iTunes Music Store library has something to do with this. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and a few other acts have so far not agreed to be part of the service, which charges 99 cents per song.

Of course, the Beatles aren't part of any legal downloading service. They have always been wary of new technology as it affects royalties. For example, they didn't issue CDs until 1987, five years after the format debuted in North America.

A source at their very tony British law firm, Eversheds, says not to read anything into this. "There's no particular reason the Beatles aren't in iTunes. They're not on any service," he says.

The story also suggests that The Beatles might possibly sue Apple over the iMS, though such an event is not portrayed as inevitable:

Nick Valner , the Beatles' attorney at Eversheds, was away and did not return calls this week. But Apple Corps, which operates in secrecy (its number is unlisted and no one's allowed to give it out), I am told, has been "in meetings" as the Apple Computer story progresses in the newspapers.

Valner does not hesitate to move against infringers of the Beatle trademark and neither do the other Beatle lawyers. They've sued over not only domain names but also unauthorized use of the Apple logo.

One lawyer who's worked on Beatles cases for 20 years told me: "They are very vigilant about pursuing these things." The question now is how vigilant the Beatles will be concerning Apple Computer's new business interests.

There is a lot more information in the full story, and we recommend it as an interesting read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Many people have noticed and lamented the lack of any songs from The Beatles at the iMS, and still others have wondered whether or not a possible law suit was in the offing. Hopefully it won't come to that, but one has to wonder how it will be played out. Our best guess is that Apple will pay out another sum of money to The Beatles in exchange with getting out from under the "No music for you!" agreement reached more than a decade ago.

One other note: For those wondering why the iMS was not called the Apple Music Store, which would have been much, much more reconignizable, especially to the Windows world, a good bet would be that iTunes Music Store helps Apple Computer avoid any tangles with The Beatles. That's pure speculation, but we imagine it's a good speculation.

Lastly, we wanted to specifically acknowledge that Fox News is hardly what one could call an always credible news source. We like to think of it as The Banner of modern news outlets. Still, we know nothing of Roger Friedman, the author of this piece for Fox News; if anyone has any thoughts on Mr. Friedman's history as a journalist, please leave a note in the comments.

Fox News Article