March 30th, 2006
Apple Corps: Let it be...
Steve Jobs took on the music and film industry, built a walled garden around Apple’s DRM and iPod platform, became Disney’s biggest shareholder and now has to deal with bringing the Beatles into line with the Apple Corps v. Apple Computer trademark lawsuit. Meanwhile Apple Corps is living in the dark ages, preferring to keep its Beatles catalog offline. It’s difficult to figure out why the Apple Corps team–Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and the estate of George Harrison–doth protest.
The trademark infringement suit goes way back to 1978, when Apple Computer was just a few years old. The suit was settled for less than $100,000 paid to the Beatle’s version of Apple, and Apple Computer agreed to not go into the music business. Who knew at that time that the music world would be turning inside out and upside down. The people at Apple Corps have their heads in the sand, like litigation or are looking to squeeze some money out of Apple Computer. Perhaps all three. The two Apples look different and do different things. One distributes music through an online music store and the other owns and creates music. Let it be…
Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
