Why can't Apple become a record label?

[DoctorJ]

You’re missing the point by a couple of light years:

1. Apple Computer have a legal settlement with Apple Corps that states they will not be involved in music.
2. Apple Computer began to get involved in music.
3. This is a breach of contract.

I don’t know how the agreement is worded (I’m sure it’s more complicated than “don’t get in the music business”), but Apple might be claiming that they are not actually in the business of producing music–they just distribute it. Would anyone really say that Wal-Mart is in the music business? After all, they sell quite a bit of it–probably more than Apple.

Of course, that argument could also be crap–I don’t know, since I’m not sure what the actual agreement was.

[Scott_Plaid]

@DoctorJ

what the actual agreement was.

Found it! I can not believe it’s real however, as the Honorable Justice Mann sounds like the name of a superhero. ::giggles::
Well, not the whole thing, just relevant quotes in a court case.
http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/judgmentsfiles/j2468/apple-v-apple.htm

[lawoot]

@Diceman

I’ve heard that the law which protects the Olympic’s name in the US specifically excludes a couple of counties in Washington State where the Olympic Mountains, the Olympic Penninsula, and the city of Olympia are located.

Well. yeah, as I said oin my original post:

Basically, NO ONE can have a company with the name “OLYMPIC” in it, unless they can prove a relationship to the Olympic Mountains, or the Olympic Peninsula.

As for Olympic Paint, I think they pre-date the law, so they were grandfathered in.

[Dewey_Finn]

@RealityChuck

You’re missing the point by a couple of light years:

1. Apple Computer have a legal settlement with Apple Corps that states they will not be involved in music.
2. Apple Computer began to get involved in music.
3. This is a breach of contract.

It’s not that simple. IANAL and I haven’t read the 1991 agreement, but sites such as
this one suggest that the agreement doesn’t allow Apple Computer to sell physical media, such as CDs so that selling songs digitally via iTunes might be permissable. But I think Apple Records would have a problem if Apple Computer signed new groups as suggested in the OP.