Apple Computer Beats Beatles’ Apple Corps

After the Beatles made buckets of money singing, they started up their own record label, Apple Corps, and proved that they were musicians and not businessmen. A bit later, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer. They had more success with their venture. Since then, the two sides have argued over who really is Apple. The latest round went to the computer geeks.

This fight has been going on for about 25 years with varying outcomes as the years went by. In 1981, the two parties struck a deal that said the Jobs-Wozniak Apple had to stick to computers and that the Fab Four’s Apple had the rights to “any current or future creative works whose principal content is music and/or musical performances, regardless of the means by which those works are recorded or communicated.” However, when the computer guys made their machines compatible with Musical Digital Interface devices, or MIDI, the Liverpudlians brought a suit. After two years, in 1991, the computer guys got a less restrictive agreement out of the musicians for about $30 million in cash.

The recent battle was almost inevitable. Once computers could play music, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to sell music on or for them (hindsight is so very clear). And the Apple Corp part of the deal directly addresses music recordings. The question came down to whether the iPod and iTunes were musical competition for Apple Corp.

In the end, Mr. Justice Edward Mann ruled at London's High Court that the i-Stuff was merely a “form of electronic shop.” In other words, the Steve-machine was not competition for anyone but Virgin, HMV and Sam Goody. An appeal may happen, but Ringo, Sir Paul and the estates of John and George need to pony up £3 million in legal fees. They can certainly afford it, but may not think the game is worth the candle at this point.

Oddly, Mr. Jobs is a big Beatle fan. His spokesman said there wasn’t any connection between what his company was named and what the Beatles had done. The two Steves, “wanted to be in front of Atari in the phone book.” Aardvark would have done even better. But who would want an Aardvark II? Or an I-Vark? An Anteater Printer?

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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