News

Legal downloads of Beatles catalog available for free through Norwegian podcast

1:52 p.m. · January 5, 2009 · by Ethan Stanislawski

Perhaps as an apology for introducing Lutefisk to the world, Norway has responded with possibly the greatest use of a music copyright loophole we've ever seen: making free, legal downloads of every Beatles song ever recorded available to the world online.

Norwegian broadcaster NRK—the BBC or Norway—reached a deal with Norway's copywright agency TONO to publish all their previous broadcasts online. What makes this significant is a feature that NRK did in 2001 where they analyzed every Beatles track ever recorded, and then played that track. So if you're willing to put up with a few minutes of Norwegian commentary before every track, and somehow don't already own every Beatles song, they're yours for the taking by free and legal means—at least by Norwegian law.

[BoingBoing]