Lawsuit alleges Apple involved in 'flagrant' music piracy on iTunes
Apple has been hit with another lawsuit alleging that the company is distributing pirated re-recordings of musical compositions through iTunes for profit.

A handful of composers, or groups that represent them, have filed another lawsuit accusing Apple of music piracy.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names several plaintiffs that have levied similar complaints against Apple in the past year, including The Harold Arlen Trust, Ray Henderson Music Company and Four Jays Music Company.
As in those previous complaints, the plaintiffs accuse a music distribution firm of illegally re-recording music pulled by physical companies and providing the content to Apple. The Cupertino tech giant, for its part, is accused of profiting from those illegal recordings through iTunes sales.
In this case, the distribution company is a UK-based outfit named Pickwick, which operates under other label names like Cool Note, Foyer, Hallmark and Leverage.
More specifically, the complaint focuses on the fact that these recordings were allegedly made without any parties obtaining the necessary "mechanical licenses" to do so. It calls the distribution of those re-recordings a "huge music piracy operation."
"The scope and flagrant nature of Defendants' piracy cannot be understated," the complaint reads.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit together wrote hundreds of popular songs and jazz standards. Harold Arlen, for example, co-wrote "Over the Rainbow," Harry Warren composed songs like "The Chattanooga Choo Cho" and "I Only Have Eyes for You," and Ray Henderson wrote "Bye Bye Blackbird," among others.
Along with damages and legal fees, the plaintiffs are asking for a permanent injunction barring the defendants from infringing on the copyrighted material.

A handful of composers, or groups that represent them, have filed another lawsuit accusing Apple of music piracy.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names several plaintiffs that have levied similar complaints against Apple in the past year, including The Harold Arlen Trust, Ray Henderson Music Company and Four Jays Music Company.
As in those previous complaints, the plaintiffs accuse a music distribution firm of illegally re-recording music pulled by physical companies and providing the content to Apple. The Cupertino tech giant, for its part, is accused of profiting from those illegal recordings through iTunes sales.
In this case, the distribution company is a UK-based outfit named Pickwick, which operates under other label names like Cool Note, Foyer, Hallmark and Leverage.
More specifically, the complaint focuses on the fact that these recordings were allegedly made without any parties obtaining the necessary "mechanical licenses" to do so. It calls the distribution of those re-recordings a "huge music piracy operation."
"The scope and flagrant nature of Defendants' piracy cannot be understated," the complaint reads.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit together wrote hundreds of popular songs and jazz standards. Harold Arlen, for example, co-wrote "Over the Rainbow," Harry Warren composed songs like "The Chattanooga Choo Cho" and "I Only Have Eyes for You," and Ray Henderson wrote "Bye Bye Blackbird," among others.
Along with damages and legal fees, the plaintiffs are asking for a permanent injunction barring the defendants from infringing on the copyrighted material.
SA Music v Apple by Mikey Campbell on Scribd

Comments
Edit: Incidentally, it also seems that these are the artists that iTunes/Apple would be earning the least from. What is the incentive for Apple to be pirating music (at all, really) that likely isn't played/purchased very much?
Then the 7% wonder realizes this and it is called "flagrant" copy right infringement because you are missing some aspect of the rights to distribute the song.
Sure the sales will be small, but they’ll build over time, and they won’t get taken down.
I dj in Latin music, predominantly salsa/mambo if the 1960’s and 1970’s. It’s a big scene. And there’s a significant amount of pirate music in the genre. There’s a label called Circulor that you’ll see against a lot of “The Best of ...” anthologies. It’s a pirate label based in Columbia.
The musicians/songwriters see none of the money paid on iTunes for these songs.
otherwise it just looks like vulture lawyer activity.
I suspect the publishers will have a very hard time proving Apple knew and looked the other way ... all distributors have to present licensing to show that they are authorized to represent and distribute the music they offer, and so Apple likely has receipts for that.
It's also quite questionable if the plaintiffs are owed any royalty/license money at all given the age of the copyrights, and it would appear that most of the "piracy" they're claiming is in fact simply cover versions of the songs by well-known and unknown artists, so ... um ... I'm not sure their lawyers know what "piracy" means, legally if they think that (for example) Israel Kamakawiwoʻole's cover of "Over the Rainbow" could be considered "piracy" even if the distributor of that cover did indeed fail to get the proper licensing.
Oh, The Young Ones. That brings back memories. Used to LMAO at that show, long before typing LMAO was a thing.
If the scope is so big that any attempt to describe it is an understatement, then it cannot be overstated. But if it’s so piddlingly trivial that anything you say would be an overstatement... you get the idea.
Fans of the Odd Couple show from the early 1970s consider the DVD versions butchered because many episodes have scenes removed due to music licensing issues.
Wikipedia was an interesting read, but imagine my surprise to learn that their back catalogue is now owned by Universal Music!