BlueBeat Claims to Own New Copyrights to Old Beatles Songs | Epicenter
The curious saga of the Beatles catalog finally going on sale online at a little-known site called BlueBeat just became even curiouser.
Hank Risan, owner of BlueBeat and other companies named as defendants in the lawsuit EMI filed on Tuesday, has a novel defense to allegations he is unlawfully selling the entire stereo Beatles catalog without permission. He claims in a court filling that he — and not EMI or the Beatles’ Apple Corp — owns these sound recordings, because he re-recorded new versions of the songs using what he termed “psycho-acoustic simulation.”
Risan faces perhaps millions of dollars in damages under the Copyright Act. And copyright attorneys said his defense is laughable and carries no weight. If successful, however, it would turn copyright on its head, leaving musical rightsholders defenseless against wanton infringement.
“They’re hosed. That just doesn’t make any sense,” said Scott Mackenzie, a Dallas copyright attorney. “I don’t even see the basis of their theory.”
Ben Sheffner, of the Copyrights and Campaigns blog, points out that BlueBeat’s defense rests on copyright law allowing musicians to produce cover versions of songs for a licensing fee.
“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.
Risan told EMI in an e-mail (Exhibit A, below) that he successfully registered his “new” copyrights with the United States Copyright Office. The ID3 tags of the Beatles songs sold on BlueBeat.com list “2009 BlueBeat.com” as the copyright holder.
“Defendants independently developed their own original sounds,” BlueBeat told the court.
Neither Risan nor his attorneys returned inquiries for comment.
A Los Angeles federal judge will decide whether BlueBeat actually owns new copyrights to the sound recordings. A decision is expected soon.
To get a sense of how much these “new” recordings resemble the originals, listen to this short sample of The Beatles’ “Sun King,” which I purchased from BlueBeat.com on Friday:
As of midday Thursday, BlueBeat continues to offer the Beatles catalog for free stream and for sale as 25-cent, 160 Kbps MP3 files.
Here’s Risan’s opposition to EMI’s application for a restraining order to stop BlueBeat from selling the files, filed on Wednesday:
And here’s his Exhibit A, an e-mail to RIAA executive vice president and general counsel Steven Marks in which he claims to have copyrighted new sound recordings of the Beatles catalog:
Staff Writer David Kravets contributed to this report.
Photo courtesy of Flickr/Dunechaser
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Well, that will be a business name that we see disappear down the drain. Nice knowin' you (for the brief glimmer of a moment) BlueBeat.
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