Yoko Ono, widow of Beatles member John Lennon, raised a few eye brows by telling Sky News that the band's library is coming to the iTunes Store. EMI, however, was quick to counter her comments and clarify that the Fab Four's library will come to iTunes, just not on September 9.

A Sky News story that quickly disappeared stated "The whole of the Beatles back catalogue will be made available to buy on iTunes, Yoko Ono has told Sky News."

The article apparently didn't include a specific date, but that didn't stop people from assuming the band's library would be included in Apple's announcements during its special press conference scheduled for Wednesday morning.

EMI representatives, however, made it clear that the band's works won't be appearing at the iTunes Store just quite yet, according to the Financial Times. "Conversations between Apple and EMI are ongoing and we look forward to the day when we can make the music available digitally. But it's not tomorrow," EMI global catalog president, Ernesto Schmitt, commented.

EMI's big concern right now is that the band's works might be pirated and that it could be held liable by the group members.

"If one [EMI] employee decides to take it home and wap it on to the Internet, we would have the right to say, 'Now you recompense us for that.' And they're scared of that," band member Paul McCartney said.

While EMI is worried about how music piracy might impact the company in this instance, the only way people can get the band's music online right now is through piracy since The Beatle's library isn't legitimately available in electronic formats.

EMI hasn't said when it plans to make the group's music available for download, but for now it seems pretty clear it won't be on September 9.

[Thanks to TechCrunch for the heads up.]