EMI, the Beatles' record label, won a temporary restraining order in a California court on Thursday against Bluebeat.com, a little-known site that had begun offering Beatles songs for just 25 cents per track. District judge John F Walter was unimpressed by Bluebeat's argument that it had "developed a series of entirely new and original sounds" that were not copies of the original recordings but "psycho-acoustic simulations".

EMI was "likely to suffer irreparable harm" in the absence of a restraining order, the court ruled.