BlueBeat Web site offers up Beatles albums for download; lawyers drool
Music download site BlueBeat is offering up a treat this Halloween weekend, but we suspect it will be getting a trick come Monday morning.
The tale of how The Beatles have not licensed their catalog for digital download sales yet has become somewhat infamous. Before almost every Apple press event you hear people saying that The Beatles back catalog will be one of the major announcements, but yet it never happens. So, imagine the surprise this morning when Music Ally was reporting that a fairly unknown site named BlueBeat was not only selling albums such as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but at a mere 25 cents per track.
While we are no legal experts, and we can’t say with any certainty that this site is blatantly infringing copyright, the old saying of, “If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck” springs to mind.
Not only is the site selling The Beatles, but it also has all of the AC/DC albums, another band that is well known for not selling its albums in a digital format. It is hard to believe that an unknown music site would be able to score two of the biggest bands that have never released MP3s without a heck of a lot more fanfare being attached to it.
Besides selling albums, all one has to do is register for free with the site and you have what appears to be unlimited access to streaming music. There appears to be thousands of songs on the site, and you can just listen to your heart’s content without even any obvious signs of advertising so you have to wonder about royalties.
From just a cursory look of the site, it looks like the plan of the site is to try to make bands file Digital Millennium Copyright Act reports to get the music removed, but as you can see from the notification below, it even sounds like the site is trying to scare away music industry reps by pointing out they can be fined for false claims.
Claims of Copyright Infringement:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe in good faith that materials hosted by BlueBeat infringe your copyright (for example, materials posted by BlueBeat on one of our Forums), you (or your agent) may send us a notice requesting that the material be removed, or access to it blocked. The notice must include the following information: (a) a physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; (b) identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed (or if multiple copyrighted works located on the Site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works); (c) identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or the subject of infringing activity, and information reasonably sufficient to allow BlueBeat to locate the material on the Site; (d) the name, address, telephone number and email address (if available) of the complaining party; (e) a statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and (f) a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. If you believe in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed by BlueBeat against you, the DMCA permits you to send BlueBeat a counter-notice. Notices and counter-notices must meet the then-current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see http://www.loc.gov/copyright/ for details. Notices and counter-notices with respect to the Site should be sent to BlueBeat’s designated agent who is:Dawn Henry
DMCA Designated Agent, BlueBeat.com
P.O. Box 8447
Santa Cruz, California 95061
Telephone (toll free): 1-877-30-MUSIC (68742)
Email Address: DesignatedAgent@BlueBeat.comWe suggest that you consult your legal advisor before filing a notice or counter-notice. Also, be aware that there can be penalties for false claims under the DMCA.
Whatever the story is behind this site, it is going to be interesting to watch what happens.
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