For those who don’t know, as well as the Beatles Live At The BBC Vol 2 set (already on my Xmas list), Universal are releasing two digital-only albums of previously unreleased music — one by the Beatles and one by the Beach Boys (plus various Brian Wilson productions and associates) — next week, to take advantage of the use-it-or-lose-it copyright extension rules that were added to EU copyright law last year.
Now, leaving aside the morality of the new laws (which I find disgusting — I am a strong supporter of copyright laws, but *only* when those laws allow things to revert to the public domain after a reasonable time. Copyright was created to allow artists to earn a living, not to create a perpetual aristocratic rentier class living off the creations of past generations) this poses a problem for me.
The Beach Boys release is fine — it’ll be available from Amazon as DRM-free MP3s (though with identifying metadata). But the Beatles release is, like all the Beatles’ digital releases, iTunes-only. And Apple not only do not have an iTunes client for GNU/Linux, they have repeatedly blocked any attempt by other developers to provide such a client. In other words, they actively refuse to sell me this album.
I’m still debating what to do about this. I could get a Windows-using friend to buy a copy of the album, dropbox it to me, and give them the money… but given that they are actually refusing to sell me the album *and* that I don’t approve of the copyright extension itself *and* that by giving money to iTunes I would be propping up a monopoly, should I?
There’s an extra moral problem, though, in that I may have much of this music already on bootlegs, and the only way I can morally justify owning bootlegs to myself is that I do, always, buy the music again should it become legally available.
Sci-Ence! Justice Leak! 
Do you know when these are dropping?
yes next week I see that now
What’s the Beatles’ tracklisting? There isn’t much left in the vaults…..nothing that’s really good, anyway.
‘There’s A Place’ – Takes 5, 6
‘There’s A Place’ – Take 8
‘There’s A Place’ – Take 9
‘Do You Want To Known A Secret’ – Track 2, Take 7
‘A Taste Of Honey’ – Track 2, Take 6.
‘I Saw Her Standing There’ – Take 2
‘Misery’ – Take 1
‘Misery’ – Take 7
‘From Me To You’ – Take 1 & 2
‘From Me To You’ – Take 5
‘Thank You Girl’ – Take 1
‘Thank You Girl’ – Take 5
‘One After 909’ – Take 1 & 2
‘Hold Me Tight” – Take 21
‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ – RM 7 Undubbed
‘Some Other Guy’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 26th January, 1963
‘Love Me Do’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 26th January, 1963
‘Too Much Monkey Business’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 16th March, 1963
‘I Saw Her Standing There’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 16th March, 1963
‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 25th May, 1963
‘From Me To You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 26th May, 1963
‘I Got To Find My Baby’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 26th January, 1963
‘Roll Over Beethoven’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 29th June, 1963
‘A Taste Of Honey’ – Live At BBC For ‘Easy Beat’ / 23rd June, 1963
‘Love Me Do’ – Live At BBC For ‘Easy Beat’ / 20th October, 1963
‘Please Please Me’ – Live At BBC For ‘Easy Beat’ / 20th October, 1963
‘She Loves You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Easy Beat’ / 20th October, 1963
‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 21st December, 1963
‘Till There Was You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 21st December, 1963
‘Roll Over Beethoveen’ – Live At BBC For ‘Saturday Club’ / 21st December, 1963
‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 4th June, 1963
‘The Hippy Hippy Shake’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 4th June, 1963
‘Till There Was You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ /11th June, 1963
‘A Shot Of Rhythm And Blues’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 18th June, 1963
‘A Taste Of Honey’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 18th June, 1963
‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 18th June, 1963
‘Anna’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 25th June, 1963
‘Love Me Do’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 10th September, 1963
‘She Loves You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 24th September, 1963
‘I’ll Get You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 10th September, 1963
‘A Taste Of Honey’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 10th September, 1963
‘Boys’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 17th September, 1963
‘Chains’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 17th September, 1963
‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 17th September, 1963
‘I Saw Her Standing There’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 24th September, 1963
‘She Loves You’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 10th September, 1963
‘Twist And Shout’ – Live At BBC For ‘Pop Go The Beatles’ / 24th September, 1963
‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ – Live At BBC For ‘Here We Go’ / 12th March, 1963
‘Please Please Me’ – Live At BBC For ‘Here We Go’ / 12th March, 1963
‘Long Tall Sally’ – Live At BBC For ‘Side By Side’ / 13th May, 1963
‘Chains’ – Live At BBC For ‘Side By Side’ / 13th May, 1963
‘Boys’ – Live At BBC For ‘Side By Side’ / 13th May, 1963
‘A Taste Of Honey’ – Live At BBC For ‘Side By Side’ / 13th May, 1963
‘Roll Over Beethoven’ – Live At BBC For ‘From Us To You’ / 26th December, 1963
‘All My Loving’ – Live At BBC For ‘From Us To You’ / 26th December, 1963
‘She Loves You’ – Live At BBC For “From Us To You” / 26th December, 1963
‘Till There Was You’ – Live At BBC For “From Us To You” / 26th December, 1963
‘Bad To Me’ – Demo
‘I’m In Love’ – Demo
It’s just alternate takes of the early songs, and more Live at the BBC stuff. I guess for completists it would be appealing, but I’ll pass on it.