Judge Makes BlueBeat Beatles Ban Really Official

BlueBeat is banned from directly or indirectly infringing on any content owned by EMI or its record labels pending trial.

The judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against BlueBeat earlier this month, but Wednesday's injunction is a more official form of that ban.

EMI sued BlueBeat after it was discovered that the site was streaming and selling its content, including the Beatles collection, as well as artists like the Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, and Smashing Pumpkins. The Beatles collection has never been released in a digital format, making the move all the more brazen.

In an objection filed on November 10, BlueBeat founder Hank Risan argued that he had developed a "psychoacoustic process" that creates sounds that simulate but are different from EMI's copyrighted sound recordings.

"The result is a musical performance digitally produced within a virtual three dimensional stage environment that provides an impressionistic listening experience closely approximating that of a live musical performance, according to the filing. "The sounds created are not mere copies of original sound recordings. Nor are they re-mastered, re-mixed, or re-formatted sounds from other sound recordings. They are independent, original sounds created by an artistic author."

BlueBeat claims that it pays royalties to SoundExchange, and that prior to the site's launch in 2004, it entered into confidential agreements with major recording labels, including EMI, which allowed the labels to evaluate if BlueBeat contained copyrighted material. BlueBeat says that the entire Beatles catalogue was on its site during the EMI evaluation but they "made no objection to its inclusion."

EMI denies that BlueBeat has ever paid any royalties for its songs, and charges that the 25-cent MP3 sales offered by the Web site "has the potential to destroy [EMI's] ability to sell, lawfully exploit, or otherwise control their sound recordings" in addition to the relationships EMI has built with licensees and artists.

The two sides were scheduled to meet in court Friday.