McCartney loses CD battle

The former Beatle, Paul McCartney, has lost a copyright battle to prevent a chain of German coffee shops from selling an unauthorised compilation of Beatles hits on compact disc. The firm, Tchibo, said it would press ahead with its plan, putting 160,000 boxes of the four-disc compilation on sale on Monday after a commercial court in Frankfurt ruled that the CDs were permissible, as a German law protecting the copyright of foreign songwriters only took effect in 1966. The compact discs, entitled Limited Edition, comprise Beatles recordings from 1962 to 1965.