Judge orders US music website to drop Beatles songs; Sydney Morning Herald, 11/6/09

Sydney Morning Herald; Judge orders US music website to drop Beatles songs:

"A judge on Thursday ordered a California online music service to stop delivering Beatles songs to users, according to a copy of the ruling posted online.

US District Court Judge John Walter in Los Angeles sided with British music giant EMI, which filed suit this week accusing Bluebeat.com and its parent company Media Rights Technologies of infringing on its rights to Beatles songs.

Walter brushed aside Bluebeat's contention that it wasn't violating copyright laws because Beatles tunes at its website were re-recorded "audio visual performances with related sounds."
Bluebeat did not submit any reliable evidence to support its claim that it "independently developed their own original sounds," the judge said in his ruling.

Walter issued a restraining order barring Bluebeat from streaming or selling Beatles digital downloads of Beatles music and said he believed EMI was likely to win its legal case against the Internet firm."

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/judge-orders-us-music-website-to-drop-beatles-songs-20091106-i1l9.html