Apple Corps, Machitosh, computers, iTunes, music, Beatles, copywrite, agreement, law
SOURCE: USA TODAY
Can money buy the Beatles' Apple love?
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
Search any fee-based digital music service for the best-loved musical artists of the 20th century and most of the expected names show up. Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Sinatra are all accounted for, with their complete catalogs available per song, at 99 cents apiece.
There are holdouts, but none bigger than the best-selling recording group of all time: the Beatles.
That could change before year's end if there's a settlement in a long-standing trademark lawsuit between the Beatles' Apple Corps and Apple Computer (AAPL). Recent reports in the British press hint that lawyers for both sides are working toward a resolution that might result in not only a multimillion-dollar settlement but in making the Beatles catalog available online, initially at Apple's iTunes Music Store. Both Apple Computer and Apple Corps declined to comment.
Should a deal come to fruition, fans would say yeah, yeah, yeah. The effect on digital music "would be huge," says Paul Resnikoff, editor of the Digital Music News Web Site. "Nothing is bigger" than the Beatles catalog.
The songs of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr elicit a emotional response...
For more, click on the link provided...