This statement came two days after London based music label EMI Group Ltd. filed a lawsuit against the Bluebeat Web site for the copyright infringement.
"Put simply, defendants are engaged in music piracy of the most blatant kind," EMI wrote in papers filed in federal district court in Los Angeles.
Agreeing with EMI, Judge John Walker issued a temporary restraining order against Media Rights Technologies Inc.’s Web site BlueBeat.com requiring them to stop selling copyrighted song tracks and also to destroy any copies saved with them.
What’s all the big fuss about?
Everyone knows that Beatles are not known for making any of their song recordings available on iTunes or any other online forum.
Now, EMI—the record label that owns the Beatles’ recordings-- argues that they are not selling Beatles’ tracks online and whoever is doing this is guilty of copyright infringement, hence the lawsuit.
But BlueBeat’s owner, Hank Risan, has claimed that he has not committed copyright infringement by selling the tunes online. Ha also stated that he does not need any license as the service is selling only re-recorded versions of the songs using “psycho-acoustic simulation” technology.
He argued that this technology enables him to sell music that sounds identical to the original recordings, hence makes the whole thing exempt under a section of Copyright Act, which applies to the recordings that “imitate or simulate those in the copyrighted sound recording”.
Music by tribute bands usually comes under this section of the law; however they still have to pay for the publishing royalties on any song they have recorded.
“It does not permit a company to re-record a recording by some new technical means — even a ‘psycho-acoustic simulation’ device — and then sell the ‘new’ recordings,” Sheffner, a copyright attorney, wrote.
There are chances Risan may have to shell out millions of dollars in damages under the Copyright Act, since he has not succeeded in selling his theory to either the judge or the offended party. But if he succeeds in proving himself right in the second attempt then it will leave the music rights holders completely defenseless against any infringement in future.
Further proceedings in the case
Since the judge has only issued a temporary restraining order against the BlueBeat Web site, matter is still hanging in the middle, where both parties are hell bent on proving their cause right.
Risan has been asked to define “psycho-acoustic simulation”, which he did thus, “Psychoacoustic simulations are my synthetic creation of that series of sounds which best expresses the way I believe a particular melody should be heard as a live performance." But no one seemed impressed with his definition.
The next court hearing date is set for Nov. 20 when judge would expect that the defendants present some concrete evidence to support their views, otherwise he would be compelled to make the restraining order permanent.
EMI’s plan B
Meanwhile, EMI has been in talks with Apple Corps, about arranging some way of legally selling the tunes online.
EMI on Wednesday had announced that it plans to offer re-mastered Beatles’ collection starting from Dec. 8, in the U.S., on an Apple-shaped USB key for $279.99.
Till then it will be interesting to see how this high voltage drama unfolds in coming weeks.
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