Los Angeles – A federal judge has ordered BlueBeat.com to
pay nearly $1 million in damages to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit
over its sale of purportedly "psycho-acoustic simulation" versions of
Beatles tracks online for 25 cents each. The company was sued by EMI, Capitol
Records and Virgin Records America in 2009, and in 2010 a judge rejected
BlueBeat’s claim that it had created entirely new — and copyrightable —
versions of Beatles tracks though its psycho-acoustic simulation process.
The
court called that defense "technobabble and doublespeak," and placed
a restraining order against BlueBeat’s unauthorized sale of Beatles tracks —
which at the time were not available to purchase digitally anywhere online.
The
site reportedly sold more than 67,000 Beatles songs before being ordered to
stop by the court.
BlueBeat will pay the record labels $950,000 in damages.
"We basically settled the case for their attorney fees," Archie Robinson,
an attorney for BlueBeat, told said. "I felt that was sort of an
acknowledgement on their part that they don’t have the damages they
claimed."
Related Links:
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(AP)
http://tinyurl.com/464sv7c
(DMW previous coverage)
