Eminem’s Eight Mile Style Waves White Flag In Facebook Feud

Written By S. Samuel

Grammy-winning rapper Eminem's Eight Mile Style has reportedly fallen back on taking serious legal action against Facebook nearly a year after suing the popular social network.

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According to reports, the publisher’s problems with Facebook have vanished into thin air.

— Last May, Eminem’s music publisher Eight Mile Style sued Facebook for allegedly using one of the rapper’s songs for the launch of an application called “Facebook Home.” The song was supposedly picked by Facebook’s co-defendant ad agency to curry favor to known Eminem fan, Mark Zuckerberg. When threatened with a copyright lawsuit, the ad agency is said to have attacked hip-hop producer (and sometime Eminem collaborator) Dr. Dre for being a flagrant thief who had stolen the song in question from Michael Jackson. Alas, on April 11, the parties stipulated to a voluntary dismissal. (Billboard)

Last May, buzz about Em’s publisher taking action against Facebook bubbled online.

On Monday, Eight Mile Style, LLC, the company that administers the rights to Eminem’s music filed a lawsuit against Facebook. The complaint filed in Michigan federal court not only accuses the popular social network of lifting one of Eminem’s songs for the April launch of a new application called “Facebook Home,” but tells the story of how Facebook’s advertising company attempted to use Eminem to attract the liking of Mark Zuckerberg, and how when threatened with copyright allegations, how the ad agency’s response was to attack hip hop producer (and sometime Eminem collaborator) Dr. Dre for being a flagrant thief who had stolen the song in question from Michael Jackson. (Billboard)

More specifically, the suit claimed Facebook knowingly took one of Em’s tracks from his 2000 album The Marshall Mathers LP.

Lawyers for Eight Mile Style say that ad company Wieden+Kennedy deliberately lifted from Eminem track ‘Under The Influence’, from 2000 album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’, because they knew Zuckerberg was a fan of the rapper’s work (something suggested by a teenage webpage created by the Facebook boss that re-emerged online last month). After fans of the rapper noticed the similarities between the music in the Facebook Home ad and ‘Under The Influence’, legal reps for Eight Mile Style quickly sent Wieden+Kennedy a cease and desist. Possibly as a result of that, when the ad was subsequently formally posted to YouTube, a new soundtrack had been added to it. The soundtrack switch, now says Eight Mile Style, implies acknowledgment on W+K’s part that the original ad infringed the publisher’s copyrights. (The CMU)

No strangers to legal battles, Em’s Eight Mile Style had won a few cases dating back to the mid-2000’s.

This isn’t the first time Eight Mile Style has taken on a tech giant: Apple Inc. reached an out-of-court settlement with the publisher in 2005 after using Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” in an iPod commercial without permission. Audi agreed to a settlement in 2011 after using a “Lose Yourself” sound-alike song in a European promotional clip. (Detroit Free Press)

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Written by S. Samuel

Steven Samuel is the co-founder of SOHH.com.

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