Eminem’s Lawsuit Against Apple

A multi-million dollar lawsuit has been filed by Eminem’s music publisher alleging that Apple has violated copyright laws by allowing unauthorized downloads of Eminem’s songs.

Apparently, this may not be the last lawsuit of this nature.

The issue surrounding this lawsuit is whether record labels hold the right to authorize downloads of their recording artist’s songs or whether they require additional permission from the music publishers… who also hold copyrights to the lyrics and sheet music.

Eminem’s music publisher and copyright manager, Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC, are alleging that even though Apple does pay a portion of the revenues to Universal Music Group - they have never authorized Universal to allow the downloads of Eminem’s songs.

Just so you know… of the 99 cents that Apple collects from one downloaded Eminem song, the recording label gets 70 cents, out of which it pays 9.1 cents in royalties to the artist publisher (the artist get nothing)… but only if the download is considered a sale. If a download is considered a licensing agreement, then the label and the artist would split the 60.9 cents equally.

Seems like Eminem needs to talk to his record label.

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