Eminem is suing Meta, the tech behemoth owned by Mark Zuckerberg and parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, for illegal distribution of his songs without a valid licence.
It seems that Eminem’s music was made available in Meta’s ‘Music Libraries’ and was then used in user-generated content via Meta’s Reels Remix and Original Audio, resulting in the songs being streamed several billion times.
According to The Wrap, Meta sought to obtain the correct licences through Audiam, the digital royalty collection and payment platform. Eminem’s publisher Eight Mile Style did not grant the authority to Audiam and it seems that Meta did what tech giants tend to do – they just went ahead anyway.
In the suit, Meta is accused of not only “rampant infringement” of Eight Mile Compositions,” but also “knowing infringement.” It goes on to state that the company “encourag(ed) billions of users of its online services to do so, all wilfully, and without a license.”
Meta has removed some of the songs in question, such as Lose Yourself, but the suit claims that the company “continues to host unauthorized cover and instrumental versions.”
Eight Mile Style is also seeking damages, lost profits, and a permanent injunction against unlicensed usage of the 52-year-old rapper’s music. Those damages work out at $150,000 (£110,837) per track, meaning that the potential payout for Eminem could be over $1million (£739,000)
It’s not the first time Eminem has taken on a tech giant. Back in 2019, Eight Mile Style launched a similar action against Spotify, saying that it had failed to correctly licenced Eminem’s music. That one was a complicated case that dragged on for years, before a court finally settled in Spotify’s favour last September.
In this particular action, Meta has requested a jury trial.
