A federal court in Los Angeles today issued a temporary restraining order enjoining BlueBeat.com from selling and streaming tunes by The Beatles and other EMI artists, rejecting BlueBeat's argument that it created "new" recordings through a process called "psycho-acoustic simulation." Here is the order granting the TRO, issued by Judge John Walter:
Order granting TRO in Capitol v. Bluebeat
The court also ordered further briefing and set a hearing for November 20 on whether to convert the TRO into a preliminary injunction. Under FRCP 65, the TRO itself lasts just 10 days. BlueBeat, based in Santa Cruz, CA, started selling and streaming Beatles tunes on October 30, without any licenses from the copyright owners.
Do you agree with the statement in section 4 that enforcing copyright being in the public interest is axiomatic?
ReplyDeleteI don't mean in the sense do you think that the copyleft is wrong, but I refer specifically to the claim that it is axiomatic. As someone who is undecided on the proper scope and utility of copyright, I found that section a most unsatisfying analysis and would love to hear your thoughts. --Ben Sauer