Remember the two Web sites that were selling Beatles tracks online for incredibly low prices? A judge has ordered the sites to get out of the Fab Four biz.
U.S. District Judge John F. Walter issued a preliminary injunction on behalf of EMI yesterday prohibiting owner Hank Risan from selling Beatles tracks on Bluebeat.com and Basebeat.com.
Walter had originally scheduled a hearing for Friday but decided to issue the injunction yesterday based on pleadings by EMI’s attorneys and Risan.
The sites began selling Beatles tracks during the last week of October. Because EMI nor Apple Corps have ever authorized downloads sales for any online service, the catalog’s sudden appearance on two obscure Web site certainly raised more than a few eyebrows.
It wasn’t just the music that grabbed people’s attention, but the prices. Risan was selling individual tracks for 25 cents and full albums, including the recently re-mastered releases, for $3 to $4.
Risan’s explanation was that he owned the copyrights, saying he had altered the original tracks using a process called psychoacoustic simulation to enhance the songs and simulate how the songs might sound performed live.
Of course, EMI wasn’t too keen on the whole psychoacoustic concept, calling it “technobabble and doublespeak.”