EMI Sues Music Site Offering Beatles MP3s
from the no-surprise-there dept
Last last week, a bunch of music blogs started noticing that a previously unknown site called Bluebeat.com was selling MP3s for $0.25, including numerous acts that still haven't officially authorized online sales -- such as The Beatles and AC/DC. There was a lot of headscratching among bloggers and reporters who wondered how this could possibly be legal. The answer, of course, is that it wasn't. The site didn't even make any attempt whatsoever to claim that they had licensed this music. They just said they thought that $0.25 was a better price for music. Not surprisingly, it took just a few days before EMI sued the site, and I'd imagine other lawsuits will quickly follow as well. It's not clear what the folks at Bluebeat were thinking -- other than that they were about to get a ton of publicity in the form of lawsuits, but it's hard to see what good that publicity is if the site is forced out of business.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Filed Under: mp3s, sales, the beatles
Companies: bluebeat, emi
Reader Comments
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I purchased...
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http://www.bluebeat.com/artists/419#
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25 cents to much
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Re: 25 cents to much
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Marker USA
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Martyrdom...
In light of this, I'm not sure if BlueBeat.com was simply trying to make as much money as possible and then run, or if they are trying to raise dissent against the record labels in order to bring down the cost of music.
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What about the..
Are you a cop? 'cause you got to tell me if your a cop right?
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Re: What about the..
"Hard-working mom of 3 is sued for 5 gazillion dollars after she purchased Beatles tracks that she thought were legal... Defendant was quoted as saying that her case would be a long and winding road, but imagine a world where you can no longer be sued for sharing music."
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/11/beatles-for-salefor-25-a-track-but-is-it-lega l.ars
They seem to think they're legal.
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Re:
Unless they're hoping to make a few quick bucks and then dodge around in legal hoops for the next few decades, this isn't really a valid "get rich quick" scheme.
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On this one I have to side with RIAA .....
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So they're trying to exploit this. Presumably you need some other kind of license to be able to use music in an "audiovisual work", and BlueBeat claims to have that licensing.
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How is this theft?
These people aren't stealing revenue from groups, because the groups aren't selling this material. I'm not legitimizing piracy - I'm simply pointing out what I see as a major flaw.
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Re: How is this theft?
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Re: How is this theft?
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How dare they...
By the way, it would have been a nice irony if Bluebeat was giving artists more money out of a $0.25 sale than the $0.06 artists get out of a $1 sale in what they call the "regular clean legal circuit"...
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Court Documents for Capitol Records v. BlueBeat
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"The site didn't even make any attempt whatsoever to claim that they had licensed this music." The article states that they they re-recorded the entire catalouge, made some accoustic changes, and the copyright office accepted the catalouges copyright!! In the end this may also be a case of copyright office runs amok.
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Re:
"The site didn't even make any attempt whatsoever to claim that they had licensed this music." The article states that they they re-recorded the entire catalouge, made some accoustic changes, and the copyright office accepted the catalouges copyright!! In the end this may also be a case of copyright office runs amok.
They said that later in reply to the lawsuit. I was talking about the site originally.
However, will have a new post up later about the response from the company.
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Court Grants TRO
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God...
"Hard-working mom of 3 is sued for 5 gazillion dollars after she purchased Beatles tracks that she thought were legal... Defendant was quoted as saying that her case would be a long and winding road, but imagine a world where you can no longer be sued for sharing music."
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I got a refund
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Re: I got a refund
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Re: Re: I got a refund
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