| $53
million: |
| The Beatles
sue EMI over disputed royalties |
agencies
Echoing
their song "You Never Give Me Your Money," The
Beatles have sued record company EMI Group, claiming
that they are owed 30 million pounds ($53.1 million)
in royalties after negotiations broke down.
Apple, the company owned by Paul McCartney, Ringo
Starr, and the families of John Lennon and
George Harrison, said on Friday that an audit
determined that
EMI had not been fulfilling the terms of its contract.
Shares in EMI, which owns the copyright to The Beatles recordings in perpetuity,
had fallen 2 percent to 237 pence by 1624 GMT.
"Despite very clear provisions in our contract, EMI persist in ignoring
their obligations and duty to account fairly and with transparency. Apple and
The Beatles are, once again, left with no choice but to sue EMI," Apple
said in a statement.
Lawsuits were filed on Thursday against EMI in
London and against its Capitol Records subsidiary
in New York after the parties failed to reach
a deal.
"Artists do sometimes request an audit of their record label's accounts,
that's not unusual, but sometimes there are differences of opinion, especially
when the contracts are large and complex, when you can get issues of contractual
interpretation," an EMI spokeswoman said.
"Ninety-nine out of 100 audit problems are resolved by amicable settlements
for a small fraction of the claim," she said.
Apple and EMI have already fought a decade-long
courtroom battle over royalties and other issues,
which was resolved out of court in 1989. Apple
Records
claimed that EMI secretly sold or gave away millions of records to retailers.
The dispute over royalties follows a settlement
of more than $50 million paid to dozens of
artists by a group of music companies including
EMI,
Universal Music Group, Sony Music, BMG and Warner Music. The 2004 deal
centered on
unclaimed
royalties and was brokered by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Apple has also filed lawsuits in the past against
Nike Inc for using the Beatles song "Revolution" in a commercial, and against Apple Computer in a
trademark dispute.
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| World
Wild Foundation (WWF): |
| Global
warming will force Santa into waterwings |
agencies
Santa
Claus may have to swap his sleigh for waterwings
sooner than expected as global warming melts
his Arctic home, environmental group WWF said
on Friday.
A new study for the organization formerly known
as the Worldwide Fund for Nature predicts that
the earth could warm by two degrees centigrade
above pre-industrial levels as early as 2026
-- and by triple that amount in the Arctic.
"
This ... could result in Santa's home changing
forever," said the report by Mark New of
Oxford University.
And Rudolph and his fellow reindeer are not
the only creatures under threat -- polar bears,
ice-dwelling
seals and several forms of Arctic vegetation
are also at risk.
"
We are already seeing signs of significant change
in the Arctic with mountain glaciers retreating,
snow cover disappearing, the Greenland ice sheet
thinning and Arctic sea ice cover declining," said
WWF climate campaigner Andrew Lee.
"
All these changes tell us there is no time to
lose -- we need to take drastic action now to
combat climate change."
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