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Psychoacoustic simulation - new way to avoid copyright?


Graham Knight

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MusicAlly and Bitterwallet are running this interesting story:

The Beatles back catalogue: No longer available for download and a weird fight for the ownership

By Mof Gimmers

beatles1.jpgRemember those mad fuckers who were making The Beatles back catalogue available for download? Well, theyre even more mental than we first thought.

BlueBeat, who were selling the Fab Four tracks have, unsurprisingly, been hit with a federal copyright lawsuit. They have been told to stop selling the music with immediate effect.

What no-one counted on was BlueBeats owner, Hank Risan, making one of the most insane claims in rock history!

Basically, hes claiming that he doesnt need to license the music as the service is using re-recorded versions of the songs using a technology called psycho-acoustic simulation and obtained new copyrights as a result.

Essentially, what theyre arguing is that, by ripping the albums from CD while running them through its software, BlueBeat has created a new body of work.

Want an explanation? Risan, when asked by EMI about how he wasnt violating copyrights, said: I authored the sound recordings that are being used by psycho-acoustic simulation. Of course, the response was something along the lines of Eh?

Risan replied: Psychoacoustic simulations are my synthetic creation of that series of sounds which best expresses the way I believe a particular melody should be heard as a live performance. This particular series of sounds being Beatles songs with some pictures attached to it almost like theyd been ripped from a CD.

Of course, this woolly answer was met with an immediate lawsuit, signifying this as piracy of the most blatant and harmful kind and taking a pop at the willful and overtly defiant manner in which they are acting.

How defiant? Well, the BlueBeat has registered for the copyright! To make matters worse, says EMIs complaint, Defendants recently sought to register their infringing sound recordings with the Copyright Office, apparently claiming that because they copied the sound recordings using their own computer system, they now own these digital copies and have the right to distribute them to the public.

Absolutely mental.

Of course, as a consumer, you can no longer obtain the Beatles back catalogue as an MP3, however, if you really want those tracks, Im pretty sure you know of a few places you can get them from and not worry about forking out any money.

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