Injunction Bars Release of Disputed Early Beatles Recordings

Posted by Matthew Heller

A Miami Lakes, Fla., record company has not contested a preliminary injunction barring it from distributing recordings purportedly made during Ringo Starr's first performance with the Beatles while the group's copyright infringement suit is pending.

"This is an injunction that was agreed to by our clients with no admission of liability to give the court time to consider the parties' claims regarding the ownership interests in these recordings," Fuego Entertainment attorney Michael Joblove told the AP.

Senior U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler in Miami granted the injunction April 4 -- two weeks after Apple Corps filed a complaint accusing Fuego of "unlawfully exploiting illict recordings of unreleased musical performances by the Beatles purportedly from Hamburg, Germany's Star Club in 1962." Fuego has said it is "emphatically disputing all of Apple's material allegations."