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This has been a busy week for Apple Computer (AAPL), which turns 30 years old on Saturday. Not only have they gotten in a fight with France, but now they're fighting with the Beatles. The Fab Four's business is also called Apple, and this is the third time Apple and Apple have clashed.

The Beatles first took Apple to court in 1978 when the computer company agreed to stay away from the music business. In 1989, the Fab Four nailed Apple when the company released a music-making program. The computer company had to shell over $26 million. Now the Beatles are taking aim at Apple's iTunes Music store.

The French National Assembly has also jumped into the act:

Last week, France's National Assembly passed an authors'-rights bill that would, among other things, require music-download stores such as Apple's iTunes to open their proprietary "digital rights management" copy-control software to users and competitors

The idea behind that provision of this bill, which must still be approved by France's Senate, is to ensure that a music download can be played on any device, not just one allowed by the seller of that file.

Kevin Hassett sums up the issue:

Imagine if someone built a resort so beautiful that vacationers swarmed to it, and the French passed a law requiring the resort owners to let French citizens stay at the resort for free. This ruling is essentially the same thing. The French are trying to rob an American company.

Interestingly, it was 40 years ago today that John Lennon said that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. But are they bigger than Steve Jobs?

Posted by edelfenbein at March 27, 2006 1:14 PM