Eminem suing Apple
Apple is known for its tendency to violate copyright laws even when artists explicitly condemn the company from using their material. Eminem is just joining the “get shafted by Apple” party and is accusing the computer giant of misusing his music in a multimillion dollar lawsuit.
This isn’t the first legal fight between Apple and Eminem. Back in 2004, Apple apparently used Eminem’s song, “Lose Yourself”, without permission in a commercial. The two settled out of court.
If you’ve logged on to iTunes lately, you may have bought an Eminem album or two. The problem with this is Apple is not officially authorized to sell Eminem’s material.
Apparently, it is not obvious as to who owns the rights to Slim Shady’s music. Universal Music Group officially distributes the artist’s stuff, so it receives payment every time Eminem’s music is sold on iTunes. Eminem’s publishers don’t see a cent of the profit from iTunes sales, and supposedly haven’t given Universal Music Group permission to sell the music through iTunes.
Eminem argues record companies don’t hold the rights to material exclusively, so Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated, the companies representing Eminem, demand that Apple stop selling his material immediately.
Entertainment Lawyer, Owen Sloane, believes more artists are going to court to demand more money out of Internet sales. “All the publishers are rankled that they have to go after the record labels to collect their fees,” says Sloane. ”Sometimes these fees may not be accounted for properly. The publishers would prefer to collect directly from the source instead of the labels.”
Perhaps this is the beginning of the end of the record label. With the introduction of the Internet, the middle men (record labels) are no longer really necessary to widely distribute music. They were necessary before, when music had to be purchased physically, but with 1s and 0s costing very little, there’s no reason to rely on record labels anymore.
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August 5th, 2007
This is a publicity stunt by Eminem, nothing more. Personally, I think he’s a punk, and anyone dumb enough to jump into the business bed with him should not be surprised when they feel the nagging pain left by his disease. That’s all this lawsuit is.
June 19th, 2010
did anyone hear the BBC interview with him when he was saying his new album wasnt leaked? that only makes this so much worse