Custom compilation CD retailer Musicmaker.com is selling all fifteen tracks of rapper Dr. Dre [ tickets ]'s triple-platinum debut "The Chronic," claiming that it may do so as part of a three-year licensing deal with Death Row Records. But Dre's attorney says that Musicmaker.com has no rights to the material.

Dre's attorney Howard King said that the terms of Dre's contract with Death Row do not give the influential rap label any rights to sell or license individual tracks or issue new compilations from 1992's "The Chronic." King argued that Death Row is only allowed to issue the album in exactly the same format and track sequence as it was released.

That means that Musicmaker.com cannot sell individual tracks from Dre's Death Row album, alleged King, who said he plans to send Musicmaker.com a cease-and-desist letter.

"The only right they have is to release it in the same manner, format and accompaniment," said King. "They have no rights to remix the material or put it on another compilation," he added.

Bill Crowley, Musicmaker.com's senior vice president of sales and marketing, said that his website would not remove the tracks until the Death Row attorney who negotiated the deal with Musicmaker.com had discussed the matter with King. Attorneys for Death Row did not return calls by press time.

Crowley, who stated that his company took "an extremely conservative stance with rights," said that it was his company's general practice to have its lawyers to review contracts before signing a deal. But he did not know if Musicmaker.com's attorneys had examined all of the Death Row contracts (including those with the late Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg) to see if all the artists' individual tracks could be sold on Musicmaker.com.

King believes that Musicmaker.com will back down rather than let the issue go to court.

This is not Dre's first legal dispute with Death Row. King said that he has had to enforce rights limitations on several occasions, most recently when Death Row wanted to include Dre tracks on the 1999 compilation "Suge Knight Presents: Chronic 2000." King said that because of Dre's contract stipulations, the album did not include any of the rapper's cuts.

Dre also sued Death Row for trademark infringement after the label released "Suge Knight Presents: Chronic 2000," claiming that only the rapper had the right to use the term "Chronic." Dre had planned to call his most recent album "Chronic 2001," but he later dropped the suit and named his album "Dr. Dre-2001" instead.

According to King, the infringement suit wasn't worth the fight.

"Their album stiffed, while ours has been on the charts for thirteen weeks," he said.

The "Suge Knight Presents" album debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart in May 1999, then dropped off the charts eight weeks later. "Dr. Dre-2001" (Interscope), which has been on the Billboard 200 for 17 weeks, is currently at No. 4.