MOBILE phone firms have been banned from using popular tunes owned by record industry giant EMI.

The firm, which has a CD manufacturing plant in Swindon, claims that ring tones breach copyright rules and has vowed to protect the intellectual property rights of artists signed to the label.

The decision will rob the chance of music fans to hear the strains of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit or Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head emanating from their mobile phones.

Other classic tunes hit by the ban include the theme from Star Trek, Chariots of Fire and Titanic.

EMI press officer Lisa Baker said: "All catalogue owners, writers and artists have the right to approve the use of their repertoire, including ring tones, and it's our obligation to respect their wishes and to protect their rights.

The songs which are not available for use as ring tones are a tiny fraction of our repertoire. The rest of our vast catalogue is available for licensing for use in ring tones."

Critics of the move argue that ring tones are a good promotional tool to ensure their songs are heard on crowded railway carriages and buses across the country.

EMI Music Publishing has filed a $45 million suit in the Southern New York US District Court against Global Music, operators of the Your-Mobile.com ring tones website, alleging breach of copyright.

The suit concerns allegations that the website operated by Global Music has offered musical material, copyrighted by EMI, for downloading to mobile phones.

The musical tones are sent as SMS messages to the mobile handset which is then able to convert them to a ring tone.

The suit is believed to be the first case of copyright infringement being alleged over the transmission of ring tones to mobile phones.