An eight-year copyright dispute between the giant Disney corporation and music publisher Boosey & Hawkes has been settled.

The British music company had been suing the American entertainment giant over the use of a piece of music by Stravinsky, called Rites of Spring, in the 1940 film Fantasia.

The firm complained that its use infringed its copyright of the music, which it aquired nine years after the film was released.

Disney has agreed to pay the music company $3m (�2m).

Four years ago a US federal court backed Boosey & Hawkes, who also manufacture musical instruments, in an initial copyright lawsuit, but the dispute continued.

Oscar

One of the key issues was that video tapes and players had not even been invented at the time the original copyright was taken out.

Fantasia divided critics when it was released, for its mixture of animation and classical music.

But it was honoured with a special Academy Award in 1942 and has since been acclaimed as a classic.

In 1999, Disney issued an update of the original movie, Fantasia 2000.

In the original, The Rite of Spring plays over a sequence in which volcanoes erupt and dinosaurs battle.

A spokesman for Boosey & Hawkes said the company was happy the dispute was at an end.

"We don't like being in dispute with anyone," he said.