APPLE SUES ONLINE MUSIC STORE OVER BEATLES RARITIES
THE BEATLES’ label Apple Records is taking legal action to try and stop an online music store from releasing 15 lost songs the Fab Four recorded live in Germany.
Fuego Entertainment executives were recently reported to have entered into a joint venture with British producer Jeffrey Collins, who claims to own the rights to the never-before-heard Beatles tracks recorded at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962.
But in legal documents filed in Miami, Florida, Apple bosses claim The Beatles were already under exclusive contract to EMI at the time of the recordings and so Fuego doesn’t have the rights to release them.
Apple is seeking at least $10 million (£5 million) in actual and punitive damages and an injunction preventing the recordings’ release.
But Collins tells Billboard, "Apple does not own the rights to the tape.
They’re trying to bully us into giving up the masters, which they have no right to…
"We haven’t used the trade name - we haven’t released it. We just made it known to the public that this tape is available." Earlier this year (08), Fuego bosses upset Jimi Hendrix’s estate, Experience Hendrix, LLC, over their plans to release 200 live tracks.
The Hendrix officials threatened legal action in a bid to prevent the "inferior quality bootleg recordings" tarnishing the guitar great’s legacy.
Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
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