Beatles "bigger than Steve Jobs"

IT WAS FORTY YEARS AGO TODAY that John Lennon famously observed that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus, resulting in outrage from some of the more easily-excitable Christian groups. Albums were burned and sales soared as people queued to buy Beatles albums just to burn them.

But this Wednesday, the Beatles risk the wrath of an even more extreme fundamentalist religious group, the devoted followers of the great prophet L. Ron Jobs, as Apple Corps goes to the High Court in London seeking multimillion-pound damages against entertainment company Apple Computer over its iTunes music store.

Apple Corps is claiming that iTunes broke an earlier agreement under which Apple Computer agreed to stay out of the music business. The London Times reports that 'The court will be treated to a demonstration of an iPod, but it is unlikely to play a Beatles song, as they have not been licensed for download and it would therefore be illegal.'

When L. Ron Jobs founded his religious order in 1976 complete with a half-eaten apple as a logo, the Beatles won an $80,000 settlement together with reassurances that the computer company wouldn't do anything remotely musical. In 1989, the Beatles won a further $26 million as Apple went back on its promise.

Apple (the non-musical one) is claiming in its defence that iTunes is merely a 'data transmission mechanism' and that it only agreed not to get into records, tapes and CDs. When asked about the case, Sir Paul McCartney gave a cheeky grin and a thumbs-up sign. John Lennon and George Harrison were unavailable for comment. µ

INQ Factoid: One of the first musical sounds made by an Apple computer was called Sosumi - pronounced 'so sue me'.