British music giant EMI on Wednesday confirmed it is suing a California online music service that streams and digitally delivers Beatles songs to users.

EMI filed suit Tuesday in a US district court in Los Angeles, accusing Bluebeat.com of copyright infringement and demanding that Beatles music be removed from the website's playlists.

EMI owns the rights to Beatles recordings and collaborates with Apple Corps on distribution of the music.

EMI said that Bluebeat, which offers MP3 downloads of songs for 25 cents each, is not authorized sell Beatles tunes.

A visit to the Bluebeat website by AFP on Wednesday revealed a host of Beatles albums or individual songs that could be streamed for free listening or purchased as digital downloads.

Bluebeat did not return an AFP request for comment.

Apple Corps was the Beatles recording label and is controlled by surviving members of the legendary 1960s era band and spouses of the late John Lennon and George Harrison.

Apple Corps has been notoriously leery of making Beatles music available for digital download, eschewing even allowing songs to be delivered to iPod or iPhone devices through the globally popular iTunes online store.

Beatles music made a tentative step in September toward a digital future with the release of "The Beatles: Rock Band" videogame devoted to the group's music and performances.

Another step was taken Wednesday with the announcement that EMI and Apple Corps will make a re-mastered catalogue of Beatles music available digitally on limited edition USB drives in early December.

The apple-shaped USB drives with 16 gigabytes of memory each will contain 14 stereo titles as well as music video, photos, album art, and 13 mini-documentary films about studio albums.

They are priced at 280 dollars (US) and can be pre-ordered online at the official beatles.com website.