Beatles copyright infringement suit settles for $950K
updated 07:20 pm EDT, Mon March 28, 2011
Company illegally sold tracks before iTunes deal
Media Rights Technologies has reportedly agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a copyright infringement suit involving Beatles songs sold on the Internet before the music became officially available on iTunes. The company had been sued by music label EMI Group for distributing a variety of tracks that were claimed to be remixed as "psycho-acoustic simulation" content, rather than original music.
District Court Judge Josephine Staton Tucker disagreed with Media Rights' argument, claiming the company used "obscure and undefined pseudo-scientific language" that essentially represented a "long-winded way of describing 'sampling,'" according to quotes in a Reuters report.
Aside from Beatles material, Media Rights also distributed similar content from other popular groups including Radiohead, Coldplay and Bonnie Raitt. The tracks were sold in 2009 on the company's website, BlueBeat.com.
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Misleading Headline
The Reuters story clearly states, as does this blurb, that the company in question sold the music of The Beatles on BlueBeats.com prior to it becoming legally available on iTunes, NOT that it illegally sold songs on iTunes.
Thanks for the clickbait. :-/