Fuck the Beatles

Post by **miftah** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:35 pm

I'm so fucking sick of the Beatles. Does anyone, and I mean anyone think they are buying a computer from the Beatles? Does anyone shop under the misguided notion that the Beatles are in the business of selling mp4s of Eminem? Trademarking a word like Apple is inane. I'm going to go trademark The, Incorporated. That way I can sue everyone who uses the word "The" to start the name of their corporation.

Apple Corps has nearly gone insolvent so many times that its a joke. Not even the non-stop glut of Beatles reissues that comes out seems to smother the tide of debt the group amasses. Only by suing Apple computers will they be able to stay afloat another six months. Makes me wonder if Bill or Paul own stock in the collective.

Post by **eddiecanuck** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:15 pm

For some reason that brings to mind when Spike Lee filed an injunction against the then TNN network to stop them from changing their name to Spike TV ("The First Network for Men") because he didn't want people to think that he was involved with them.

He lost and had to pay Spike TV a huge sum of money in lost revenue. Some people will do anything for a buck.

Pigman · Post by **Pigman** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:05 am

Perhaps if Apple (the computer company) kept their agreement, their would be *no* problems? just a thought...

Post by **miftah** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 11:56 am

Perhaps they have kept their end of the agreement. Think about that.

Pigman · Post by **Pigman** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:14 pm

If they kept to the agreement, then their will be no further problems, right?

They can take Apple (the first Apple Corp) to court and win easy .. problem solved..

The way you state it, the Beatles Company have very limited money to fight it anyway...

Post by **miftah** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:20 pm

The problem is that they are extrapolating to make their case. Apple owns iTunes. It develops iTunes and markets it as a service. It doesn't produce the music nor does it commision it. It merely offers the service. iTunes is not a record label. It causes no damage to the trust.

Further, it assumes that through iTunes Apple is trading on the name "Apple" to do so. iTunes, though developed by Apple is not called "Apple's iTunes" or "iTunes by Apple." Apple merely put out a product that delivers media content. In that way it is only a slight bit different than Apple's Quicktime product, which is also a media delivery product. Or the Apple CD player which has been a part of the Apple platform since, oh, CD-Rom drives were implemented on the platform. Then there's Garageband, Apple's product for composing music tracks. No lawsuit on any of these... The problem here is that iTunes is making a lot of money and the trust assumes that they are entitled to a cut. It's inane.

But the legal definition of this is clearly open for debate, and I'm hoping it goes to court.

When Michael Jackson inevitably goes insolvent, I'd love it if Steve Jobs bought the Beatles catalogue from the auction block and locked the songs up in stasis, halting all publication of them indefinately. That would stop even Moneybags McCartney from playing the songs.