Apple settles with Tin Pan Alley heirs, ending string of tech company lawsuits

The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, US REUTERS/Mike Segar

(Reuters) – Apple Inc has settled a copyright dispute with the heirs of the songwriters behind “Get Happy,” “Stormy Weather,” “That’s Amore” and other hits from the Tin Pan Alley music era of the early 20th century, according to Wednesday filings in San Francisco federal court.

The settlement marks the end of a series of lawsuits against Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft for allegedly selling “bootleg” digital versions of those and other songs written by Harold Arlen, Harry Warren and Ray Henderson.

The heirs’ attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, and neither did Apple or one of its attorneys.

Arlen is best known for writing “Over the Rainbow” and other popular songs from the early 1900s, including “I’ve Got the World on a String” and “The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea.” Henderson wrote standards including “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and Warren’s best-known songs include “At Last” and “I Only Have Eyes for You.”

Beginning in 2019, the heirs accused the tech companies of selling pirated recordings of dozens of songs. The lawsuits said the companies offered song downloads from entities that were “simply duplicating previously released recordings and selling them as if they were the rightful owner” for lower prices than authorized versions.

US District Judge William Orrick said in March that Apple did not infringe the heirs’ copyrights willfully, but may be liable for making the recordings available on the iTunes Store.

The parties reached a settlement on Wednesday, according to an entry on the court docket. The heirs settled their disputes with Amazon, Microsoft and Google last year.

The cases are SA Music LLC v. Apple Inc, US District Court for the Northern District of California, Nos. 3:20-cv-02146, 3:20-cv-02794 and 3:20-cv-02965.

For the heirs: Matthew Schwartz and Brian Levenson of Schwartz Ponterio & Levenson, Oren Giskan of Giskan Solotaroff & Anderson

For Apple: Gabrielle Levin and Scott Edelman of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher

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