Aaliyah -- Legal Dogfight Over Dead Singer's Music

Aaliyah's been dead nearly 12 years ... but a music publisher is still fighting over the rights to her songs, suing a record company for allegedly hawking bootleg Aaliyah jams on the Internet.

Reservoir Media Management filed the lawsuit against a company called Craze Productions, claiming Craze has been illegally selling songs from Aaliyah's double-platinum albums "Aaliyah" and "One in a Million" on iTunes.

Reservoir claims it's the sole owner of the songs in question ... acquiring the music rights in 2012 ... and it never gave Craze permission to sell the music.