Apple Beats Apple

Apple Computers won its legal battle against Apple Corps, the music label owns by the ex-Beatles (plus Yoko). It seems the judge decided Computers wasn't in breach of the previous agreement to stay out of music because the iTunes Music Store sells data, not analog music.

I agree with the ruling, not the reasoning behind it. The heart of the issue is (allegidly) consumer confusion between the two labels. That's what sparked all the lawsuits many years back, each of which set new limits to what Apple Computers was allowed to do with music. Of course with the evolution of technology those terms had to be redefined (in court) to update the restrictions with current technology. At this point in time, I think label confusion isn't an issue (not that it ever was). That's why Apple Computers deserves the win it recieve. While I disagree with the fact that it's only because Apple sells data, I can agree with this morsel from the full judges report: "for Computer to cross into Corps' territory with its mark it would have to have indicated, by its use of the mark, that Computer was the source or origin of the music. ... The ownership of the rights is always attributed to the correct person within the ITMS and in the track information on any downloaded track."