INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Arlen's son is seeking up to $4.5m in damages
The estate of
Harold Arlen - who wrote such American songbook classics as Over The Rainbow and Get Happy - is suing some of the world's biggest tech
firms.Arlen's son, Sam Arlen, says he has found more than 6,000 unauthorised copies of his songs on Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft's
services - often at lower prices than the originals.His lawyers claim the firms are engaged in "massive piracy operations".Arlen is seeking
damages that could reach into the millions of dollars.According to the legal papers filed in Los Angeles, streaming services and download
stores are flooded with "bootleg" copies of Arlen's songs, robbing his estate of royalties.The 148-page filing makes provides several
examples of alleged piracy
It notes that a fan looking for Ethel Ennis' recording of Arlen's song For Every Man, There Is A Woman can find the official recording on
However, a separate version on the Stardust Records label - featuring the same cover art with the RCA Victor Logo edited out - is available
In some cases, the alleged pirate copies contain the tell-tale "skips, pops and crackles" of vinyl - suggesting they've been duplicated from
a record, rather than the original master tapes."It is hard to imagine that a person walking into Tower Records, off the street, with arms
full of CDs and vinyl records and claiming to be the record label for Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald, could succeed in
having that store sell their copies directly next to the same albums released by legendary record labels, Capitol, RCA, and Columbia, and at
a lower price," stated Arlen's lawyers
"Yet, this exact practice occurs every day in the digital music business where there is a complete willingness by the digital music stores
and services to seek popular and iconic recordings from any source, legitimate or not, provided they participate in sharing the
proceeds."Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Over the Rainbow won the Oscar for best song in 1939, and was later
named Song of the Century by the US Recording Academy
Part of the dispute appears to stem from the differences in copyright
law between the US and Europe
In the US, copyright for sound recordings made after 1923 and before 1972 is generally 95 years
In the UK and Europe, copyright expires after 70 years, after which sound recordings enter the public domain
Even so, some of the recordings cited in Arlen's court papers are still protected by copyright in Europe; while the compositions
themselves are not in the public domain (a writer's copyright continues for 70 years after their death)
The estate is suing dozens of record labels alongside the online retailers, which it claims have "continued to work with" alleged pirates
despite having knowledge of copyright infringement "for several years".Arguing that songs like It's Only A Paper Moon, Over The Rainbow,
Stormy Weather and I've Got The World On A String were "monumental works of art [that] are, quite literally, national treasures"; they are
and -trillion dollar companies that rule the digital music markets for their wilful infringement on a grand scale."The companies named in
the court papers have yet to comment.Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @TheIndianSubcontinentNewsEnts, or on Instagram at
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