Have the Norwegian Beatles podcasts burst a dam or unleashed a firestorm?

January 5, 7:42 PMBeatles ExaminerSteve Marinucci

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  How can the Beatles catalog become a free download
  when it hasn't hit any of the pay services yet?

The very surprising announcement that Norway's NRK (Norway Broadcasting Co.) has begun a series of Beatle podcasts featuring the entire Fab Four catalog in free digital downloads sounded at first like an internet spoof.

What? The Beatles catalog, which hasn't been available by agreement on iTunes or any other digital download service, will be available free through a series of podcasts.

Did you say free? Is this a joke? Are these real internet sites reporting this news or has April Fools Day come a little early?

No, the news was very much real -- or at least someone thinks so. NRK has it splashed all over their website.

But something else may be at foot here. John Timmer of arstecnica.com, in an excellent analysis of the announcement of the complex situation, suggests all may not be as it seems.

For one, he says NRK may have pulled a fast one on TONO, Norway's music distributor, which gave the NRK permission to host the podcasts.

He first points out that TONO's English language website, Why TONO,  begins with this paragraph:

Are you aware of the fact that a licence fee has to be paid for all public performances of music?

Indeed, a statement further down the page states the case more distinctly:

The composer is entitled to compensation every time his work is performed, no matter if it is a live performance or mechanical one (CD, Movie, etc.).

TONO, which appears to be an organization concerned with music copyrights, might not logically be the first to agree to such a situation as this, especially with a catalog that has yet to go online for fee-based downloads. Why would so valuable a property as the Beatles' catalog be given away for free? Timmer even suggests TONO may not have known any Beatles music was even to be included when the deal was struck.

Has a Norwegian podcast burst the dam holding back Beatle catalog downloads? Or, as Timmer concludes, has NRK "opened the Beatles' version of Pandora's box, or simply invited Apple Records' lawyers to spend the winter in Norway"?

The next chapter in this drama should be interesting.

UPDATE:
- EXCLUSIVE: Norwegian Beatles podcasts halted; Beatles' Apple Corps issues statement
- UPDATE: Norwegian broadcaster explains halting Beatle podcasts

RELATED:
- Beatle News Briefs - 1/5/09 - Norwegian podcast series opens Beatle catalog for free downloads