Apple settles copyright dispute with Harold Arlen’s estate over the unauthorised copying of his songs. The ‘Over the Rainbow’ composer’s estate which have already successfully settled with major corporations such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google have now also come to a settlement agreement with Apple.
The suit which was originally filed in the in Los Angeles Courts in 2019, had seen Harold Arlen’s son, Sam Arlen, claim that the American composer’s songs and pirate copies were shared thousands of times on the major corporation’s streaming sites, taking away from the composer’s huge estate of royalties.
According to NBC news, the lawsuits core focus was on the song rights controlled by the estate and whilst mechanical copying of songs is generally subject to a compulsory license in the States, such license only applies in the instance where the recording sold is properly licensed. Therefore, copyright in the songs will have deemed to have been infringed if the compulsory license did not apply to begin with.
In the summary judgement, it was affirmed that whilst Apple was in fact liable for the infringement, the infringement in question was not intentional.
The terms of the settlement now reached between Apple and Harold Arlen’s estate have not been disclosed.
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