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The company that controls Eminem’s early catalog, Eight Mile Style, also requested a jury trial
The company that controls Eminem’s early catalog is suing Mark Zuckerberg’s technology company.
Eight Mile Style filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms, the technology company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The music publishing company has accused the tech company of copyright infringement and is now seeking over $109 million in damages, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
Eight Mile Style was co-founded by the musician’s production team, the Bass Brothers. It controls the rapper’s music that was published between 1995 and 2005. Eminem is not directly involved in the lawsuit.
Eight Mile Style alleges that Meta violated the copyright of 243 songs from its catalog. Eight Mile Style claims Meta did so through the “unauthorized storage, reproduction and exploitation” of the 243 songs on the various platforms.
The claims cite the various applications’ different features, including Original Audio and Reels Remix, as a means to “allow and encourage its users to steal Eight Mile Style’s music” to use in their content “without proper attribution or license.” The suit also claims that the songs have been used in millions of videos and streamed billions of times.
Now, the company claims there is a “diminished value of the copyrights by Defendants’ theft of them, lost profits, and Defendants’ profits attributable to the infringement.” The company is seeking monetary damages and asked for the maximum statutory damages.
The Grammy winner’s company requested $150,000 for each of the 243 songs being on Meta’s Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, reaching a total of $109,350,000 in damages. Eight Mile Style also requested a jury trial.
The suit claims the Oscar winner’s songs “are some of the most valuable in the world, and Eight Mile Style is very protective of these iconic songs.”
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The court documents allege that Meta pursued the acquisition Audiam, Inc. licenses, but Eight Mile Style says it did not permit access to Audiam (a digital royalty collection and payment engine).
The suit states that although some songs were removed after Eight Mile Style’s earlier complaints, Meta allegedly “reproduced and stored unauthorized unlicensed copies.”
PEOPLE reached out to Meta for comment.
Source People.com
