Website To Pay Big For Posting Beatles Hits

A website that posted digital copies of The Beatles music a year before they became legitimately available has agreed to pay record companies nearly $1 million to settle a lawsuit. Court records show the owner of the site BlueBeat.com agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by the music companies EMI, Capitol Records and Virgin Records America. A federal judge had previously ruled

BlueBeat infringed on the labels’ copyrights when it sold high-quality versions of songs by the Fab Four and other top-name acts, including Coldplay and Lily Allen, for 25 cents apiece. The case had been scheduled to begin trial today on remaining issues. The website posted music shortly after the release of re-mastered Beatles albums.