Parody singer-songwriter Weird Al Yankovic is suing Sony Music Entertainment for $5 million. Yankovic claims he has apparently missed out on a large amount of royalties.

Yankovic says he is owed more than $5 million, claiming he was underpaid by the company, who counted downloads of his songs as "sales" and not "licenses," which would entitle him to 50 percent of revenue. The latter pay a higher royalty rate.

The lawsuit was filed last Friday at the United States District Court in Manhattan. Yankovic says he is owed money from file sharing services Napster, Kazaa, Grokster and others. He claims he is owed $2.5 million from Sony's sale of YouTube in 2006, which sold for $1.65 billion, where music labels apparently made $50 million. Ear Brooker Enterprises, Yankovic's company, claims Yankovic has a right to a share of the sale due to the popularity of his videos.

Ear Brooker thought there was a mistake in its March 2010 audit. The company alleges it was double-charged, with marketing costs being labelled as production costs, so Sony could charge for losses. However, the case claims Sony failed to show documentation for all bills.

"Sony has incorrectly reported to Ear Brooker the quantity of products sold, has incorrectly categorised those products, and has incorrectly paid Ear Brooker for products which it has accounted," reads the lawsuit.

Representing Yankovic is Richard Busch. Sony has not responded to the suit as of writing.

Yankovic - whose real name is Alfred Matthew - parodies songs from pop culture such as "Eat it" (covering Michael Jackson's "Beat it") which have helped the artist sell 12 million albums worldwide. His YouTube video "White & Nerdy" is one of the most popular on YouTube, with over 69 million views since its release in 2006.

(reported by Jonathan Charles, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)