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Update (5/16/08)
Update (4/6/08)
Update (4/5/08)
Update (4/4/08)
"One other thing I want to add," Cancio said. "We have received emails as the result of Apple's spectacle of trying to fight this through the courts and through the media. We have received hundreds and hundreds of emails from supporters of the Beatles that want these recordings out. But moreover, we have received over 30 emails from people that worked with the Beatles, travel with the Beatles, perform with the Beatles in and out of the Star Club in Hamburg and they all have a story to tell and they're all not in favor of the Beatles. So people are willing to testify in our behalf and say things that will tremendously help our case.
"So we are more determined now than we were before to pursue this litigation as to find a reasonable court order to who owns these recordings. And one of the things we're confident of is that the Beatles ... knew they were being recorded that night in 1962."
Cancio called the whole lawsuit "a complete waste of the Beatles' money," and went on to say, "I will call it the school bully trying to take the lollipop from the smallest children in the class."
Update II (4/3/08)
Update (3/30/08)
Update (3/29/08)
Update (3/26/08)
Fuego Entertainment Is in Dispute With Apple Corps Limited Regarding Exploitation of 1962 Beatles Recordings
Wednesday March 26, 11:30 am ET MIAMI, FL--(MARKET WIRE)--Mar 26, 2008 -- The London-based company Apple Corps Limited ("Apple") filed a legal complaint in Miami Federal Court against Fuego Entertainment, Inc. (OTC BB:FUGO.OB - News), and its majority owned joint venture, Echo-Fuego Music Group, LLC ("Fuego"). Over the past few weeks, Fuego was engaged in cordial and respectful conversations with Apple's legal counsel with respect to the exploitation of 12 never released historical and valuable music recordings of the Beatles. In good faith, Fuego promptly complied with Apple's requests to restrict exploitation of the Beatle's recordings in an effort to safeguard Fuego's relationship with Apple until the dispute was amicably resolved. Nevertheless, Fuego respectfully declined Apple's request to send Apple the subject music recordings.Fuego was formally served with a legal complaint yesterday, March 25, 2008, and is emphatically disputing all of Apple's material allegations and will vigorously defend Fuego's rights accordingly. Although Fuego continues to be advised by the Miami-based entertainment law firm, Simran Singh, P.A., Fuego has also retained the prestigious legal services of the Miami-based Genovese, Joblove & Battista, P.A., for this litigation matter. Genovese, Joblove & Battista, P.A., has one of the largest intellectual property and trademark litigation practices in Florida and represents national and international clients in litigation matters throughout the nation. The firm represents businesses and individuals in all types of commercial litigation matters and provides thorough and professional litigation representation that is highly focused and, when appropriate, multi-disciplinary.
Fuego Entertainment, Inc. is engaged in the production, acquisition, marketing, sales, and distribution of entertainment products. For more information, please visit Fuego Entertainment at http://www.fuegoentertainment.net
(Updated 12:05 p.m. ET March 22.)
(3/22/08) Apple Corps filed a federal lawsuit Friday in Miami to stop the planned release of a disc featuring a 1962 performance by the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg. The lawsuit names Fuego Entertainment, Fuego-Echo Music Group LLC, Echo Vista Inc., Fuego CEO Hugo Cancio and Jeffrey Collins as defendents. Fuego announced in January it acquired Beatles Star Club tapes from Collins that were, according to the press release, " 'lost' for over 33 years"Paul LaCalsi, the attorney representing Apple Corps, described the tapes to the Associated Press as "garden-variety bootleg recording." But Hugo Cancio, president of Fuego Entertainment, countered the claim, telling the Associated Press, "Don't claim that these were just bootlegged. It's not like today, that you just go in with a phone or a blackberry and you record."
Cancio also told the Associated Press he did not expect a lawsuit.
"I'm surprised because up to a few weeks ago, we were in good-faith conversations with Apple."However, Apple sent a cease-and-desist letter regarding the Star Club tapes to Cancio and Collins on Jan. 18. (We'd originally had a report on Jan. 17 saying Apple was "looking into the claim.") The letter said, in part, "Such unauthorized use and commercial exploitation by Fuego of the Beatles' Star Club Performances, including use of the federally registered trademark "The Beatles" in connection with its website marketing for these Performances, is unlawful and constitutes infringement of our clients' rights ... ."
LaCalsi told Rock Daily, "What Fuego did for a little while is that they streamed it, the song and the clips, and then we sent them the cease-and-desist letter and they pulled down the streaming. But very recently theyve indicated that theyre still intending to proceed with remastering it and issuing a CD, so we were forced to go into court and seek to stop them."
Abbeyrd's Beatle Page reported in January a list of the tracks (possibly incomplete) that Fuego reportedly had. They were: "Road Runner," "The Hippy Hippy Shake," "A Taste of Honey," "Money," "Itıs You That Iım Thinking Of" [I don't know this is the actual title], "Ask Me Why," "I Saw Her Standing There," "Ramshackle Shack," "Lovesick Blues," "First Taste Of Love," "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," "Do You Believe," "Ooh Poo Pah Doo," "Twist and Shout" and "Rebel Rouser." Some of these had been released before and some of it wasn't the Beatles at all. For a short time, Fuego streamed four tracks on its website. They were "I Saw Her Standing There" (booted-but-not-released version), "Hippy Hippy Shake" (released version), "Lovesick Blues" (booted version, but not the Beatles) and "A Taste Of Honey" (the only new track of the four). Collins also discussed plans to release the recordings in early February in an interview on NBC's "Today" show.
This is not the first time Apple Corps has filed suit in connection with these tapes. In 1991, Apple sued Sony Music Entertainment to stop release of its discs featuring Star-Club recordings. The new lawsuit contends that the Beatles never permitted a third party to record their live performances at the Star Club and, in fact, weren't permitted to do so under their June, 1962, contract with EMI. Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all testified to that effect in 1992. As a result, Sony agreed to a consent order not to release certain recordings and took the Star Club tapes off the market.
The Star Club itself never recorded any groups until after the Beatles became famous, so there were never any tapes of the Beatles recorded by the Star Club that could be released, the lawsuit says.Cancio was disappointed the tapes probably won't get released.
"It's unfair to millions of Beatles fans not to allow this recording to be put out. The world deserves to hear these tracks," he told the Associated Press. "The fact is that we have it; they don't, and that is what's bothering them."
A spokesperson for Capitol Records in Los Angeles contacted by Abbeyrd's Beatles Page had no comment on the suit. Fuego Entertainment did not respond to an email request for a comment for this story.The suit also says Apple claims this is not the first time that Collins tried to release Beatles recordings without permission. Before Collins was sentenced to three years' probation in 1996 on a criminal plea of violating New Jersey's sound recording piracy law in connection with non-Beatles recordings, he tried to manufacture and distribute 15 Beatles performances at the Star-Club, the new suit contends. In response to Apple's cease-and-desist letters at that time, Collins signed a letter acknowledging that he could not release the album without their permission, the complaint says. He also made an offer to Apple to sell back the "finished" master tape and what he called the "original" set of Star Club recordings for $25,000 in exchange for not releasing the album, which had been set to be titled, "Jammin' With the Beatles '62."
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