Eminem Sues for Illegal Use of his Songs

October 5, 2005

Marshall Mathers III, aka Eminem through his publishing companies Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated, is suing five different companies for selling and distributing his songs as ringtones online without proper rights.

The suit would prohibit Cellus, USA; FanMobile; Nextones.com; MyPhoneFiles and MatrixM LLC, from selling Eminem's songs. Ringtones have become a huge chunk of the music industry market bringing in $217 million is sales last year.

“This is a big business. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year,” stated Howard Hertz, a lawyer representing the rapper.

Eminem is also currently going after karaoke companies for using his songs without permissions. This is not the first time that Eminem has had to protect his music. He has sued Apple for using a song of his without permission for an iPod commercial. Eminem has moved up album release dates to prevent online piracy. He has also sued The Source magazine, to stop publication of a magazine that printed his racy lyrics.

"We're going to be going after any ringtones or karaoke companies who use his songs without getting the proper licenses," stated Hertz.

Sources:
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17513,00.html?fdnews
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/entertainment/story.asp?j=158152472&p=y58y53y78