A South Carolina man has sued Apple Inc., Amazon, and CD Baby for more than $5.2 billion dollars over copyrighted sound recordings and artwork.

Plaintiff Roland Chambers, in a court filing to the South Carolina District Court, claimed he provided CD Baby with five compact discs featuring 12 original copyrighted sound recordings and two pieces of artwork for the album cover. Chambers stated he gave CD Baby the materials "on or about July of 2001."

"In consideration for the compact disc, CD Baby [known as Defendant #3] executed a consignment only contract, which included distribution of the five discs sent only, no reproduction clause, warehouse storage fees if not sold, and no ownership transfer of copyright," reported Patently Apple.

Chambers received no payment for the five discs.

By March 2014, Chambers discovered the discs were still being sold and in numerous formats without an explanation given to him or payment. CD Baby was allegedly supposed to distribute the five discs but not create new copies.

Amazon and Apple are involved in the case due to the sound recordings being available by a third-party seller. For Amazon's case, the discs are able to be sold in various countries such as France, Germany, Italy, India, Spain, and the United States, to name a few. Chambers claimed Amazon allowed third-party sellers to sell the copyrighted material despite multiple requests to take down the items.

In regards to Apple, three of the 12 songs were available on Garageband between 2000 and 2002. The songs, however, were not available for download but were able to be streamed for audiences. The nine remaining songs were simply available on digital formats but without the consent of Chambers.

According to the court filing, as a result of 14 years of alleged illegal use of Chambers's copyrighted materials, the defendants violated the Copyright Act for Sound Recordings and Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Chambers is seeking $5.2 billion with an interest rate of 2.5 percent from March 14, 2014 until a judgment is entered. The $5.2 billion is split up among Amazon, Apple, and CD Baby. Chambers demands approximately $1.74 billion, respectively (Amazon: $1,735,500,000; Apple: $1,735,860,000; CD Baby: $1,735,500,000).

The copyright infringement lawsuit has been assigned to Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., and referred to Judge Paige J. Gossett. The case number of the lawsuit is 3:2014cv00972.

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