iPod: Even The Brits Get That Beatles Song Wrong

How quickly mistakes spread on the Internet. Perhaps the first story to appear on major major news sites about the iPod came from the Associated Press. In it, the writer described Steven Jobs showing off the iPod function by playing the Beatles song "Lovely Rita, Meter Maid." Actually, the song is called simply "Lovely Rita." But since AP made that mistake, the article was printed and reprinted and linked to all over the world. Many people talking about the launch read that article and made the same mistake. And even the BBC -- which should know the correct name for a Beatles song -- gets it wrong in a story they've posted. Hats off to the NY Daily News, which managed to hit on two main ideas most of the articles missed: one, the controversy over the name iPhone (another company Cisco owns the rights to that) and two, Apple's fiscal shenanigans. (That was handled very nicely by saying Jobs played a congratulatory voicemail from Al Gore, who sat on the baord that cleared Jobs of any wrongdoing in the matter. (Their defense of Jobs? He was too dumb to realize the implication of backdating stock options being granted to people. I could guess it was shady; why couldn't he?) The final irony of the "Lovely Rita" fiasco? Beatles songs aren't available on iTunes. No one -- except one lone comment on a reader feedback thread -- pointed that out.