Confession: I never liked the Beatles (all my Beatles adoring friends - I love you, please forgive me).  I think they were an over-hyped, well marketed group with mediocre musical talent and shallow philosophy. Out of all four, John Lennon is the one I dislike the most. The classic example of a spoiled talented child that thinks too highly of his own importance, never takes responsibility over his own actions and goes wacko with money and fame. Paul McCartney has long ago cliche’ed his way to model citizenship and  billionaire-hood. Good for him, as long as I don’t have to listen to yet another hotel-piano-bar-worthy tune. George Harrison I actually liked a lot. Alone though. He was funny, talented, under appreciated, didn’t take himself too seriously and most importantly put together great work after the Beatles were (thankfully) done with. And Ringo,  oh Ringo….great name, great timing, great location. Good guy, lucky guy.

The trigger to this post is the “Apple vs. Apple” saga. Like most people, I appreciate Apple and it’s products but I’m not a Steve Jobs or Apple fanatic. Still, I don’t remember enjoying such ass-whooping in a while. Apple Corps has got some nerve! How dare they?! How greedy can they be?? Does anybody - Beatle fans, Paul McCartney, Apple Corps directors and attorneys - actually think that they have a claim to any iPod / Apple trademark or logo on claims of being ”a music product”? Do they actually expect us to believe that something that belongs to them was stolen? How disrespectful can they be to actual Beatle fans?

What I really fear is the growing cynicism with copyright abuse. Intellectual property laws have become the practice of greedy bullies  - practice that has zero to do with intellectual property. The whole idea is to protect and respect innovation  and creation. It has turned into an ambulance chasing contest. I hope this ruling is a precedent and that it preludes some winds of change.

A friend of mine sent me this O! news clip from YouTube entailing how John Lennon actually invented the iPod. Hilarious. Enjoy.