Stanford CIS

The Beatles, G.W. Bush and Apple Computer

By Stanford Center for Internet and Society on

President G.W. Bush revealed in an interview that he has the Beatles on his iPod playlist. A small controversy erupted, since Beatles songs have never licensed for sale in an electronic format, meaning G.W. either ripped his own CD or did something that the RIAA doesn't like.

G.W. may be the last U.S. President around whom this particular controversy might ever erupt. Le Monde reports that Apple Corps, the Beatles' label, has announced its intent to license over 200 Beatles songs. This revelation evidently came in a submission by Apple Corps to the court in the record label's most recent lawsuit against Apple Computer.
Is this a just-in-time-for-court deal, as pundits have suggested about Perfect 10's thumbnails-for-the-phone deal? That is, is this a deal meant to show real possibility of harm for Apple Corps' breach of contract claim?

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