The estate of Harold Arlen is suing Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Pandora for selling unauthorized recordings of the artist’s music. Harold Arlen is known for composing Over the Rainbow in 1939 which was later named as the “Song of the Century” along with music for the 1954 remake of A Star is Born, The Wizard of Oz, and more. The lawsuit alleges a “massive music piracy operation” by Apple, Amazon, Google, and others.

All the music streaming services online are flooded with unauthorized Arlon songs which are being sold at a price lower than what the authorized copies are selling for. The lawsuit claims that all music and streaming companies are selling unauthorized copies with full knowledge of the matter.

According to the lawsuit, the largest digital music stores and streaming services are now flooded with unauthorized copies of Arlen’s songs that are being sold under different record labels for less than the price of the authorized copies of Arlen’s songs. For example, one online retailer is selling a song from the Jamaica cast album under the record label Soundtrack Classics for $0.99 alongside an authorized copy of the song from the RCA Victor record label for $1.29. The cover art of the Soundtracks Classics version has been doctored to remove RCA Victor’s logo.

“It is hard to imagine that a person walking into Tower Records, off the street, with arms full of CD’s 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 attorneys. “Yet, this exact practice occurs every day in the digital music business where there is unlimited digital shelf space … and 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,” they argued.

In their lawsuit, the lawyers want to put an end to this copyright infringement and are also seeking damages totaling $4.5 million.

A quick search on Apple Music/iTunes Store confirms that Apple is indeed selling these songs at a price lower than what the authorized copy is going for. While Apple is not really the culprit here since it is only providing music labels and distributors with a platform to sell their music to consumers, it is indirectly encouraging the sale of unauthorized music by not taking it down from the store.

[Via Forbes]