Education for those not aware: The Beatles started their own record label, Apple Records.
Will there be a Apple Records vs. Apple showdown? Who knows. But here’s an interesting bit of history I didn’t know.
Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs was such a Beatle fan that he named his company after the record label. But the Beatles, who are notoriously protective of their rights and quite litigious, weren’t so happy with Jobs. In 1981 they made him sign something agreeing never to go into the music business in order to keep a name they had trademarked. But then in the mid-1980s, Apple Computer started producing music files and software. It had to pony up $26 million when the Beatles sued, and again promised not to go into any more music businesses. (full story)
With the advent of iPod and iTunes, there’s another lawsuit that could potentially happen.
[found via paidcontent.org]