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March 26, 2006

legal

Apple to Beatles: Sosumi, Pt. III

Posted Mar. 26, ’06, 8:55 PM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Legal

abbey_road.jpg So eager to bite off another piece of Apple’s revenue stream, Apple Corps has taken Apple Computer to court for the third time in the last 30 years. (Here’s the judgement from the last time, in 2004.)

The companies clashed again in 1989 after Apple Computer introduced a music-making program. The computer company settled in 1991, for $26 million. Apple Corps was awarded rights to the name on “creative works whose principal content is music” while Apple Computer was allowed “goods and services … used to reproduce, run, play or otherwise deliver such content”.

Critically, however, the agreement prevented Apple Computer from distributing content on physical media. This was designed to cover CDs and tapes, but it is unclear whether it included later inventions such as digital music files or devices used to play them.

Apple Computer will argue that its music service, which has sold more than a billion songs since 2002, is merely data transmission.

The best part? The case will be heard by (no joke): Mr. Justice Mann.

Related: Early Apple sound designer Jim Reekes corrects Sosumi myth (Boing Boing)


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