Eminem publisher sues Meta

Photo Credit: Eminem by EJ Hersom for DoD News / CC by 2.0

Eminem’s music publisher, Eight Mile Style, is suing Meta with allegations of widespread copyright infringement on Facebook and Instagram.

Eight Mile Style, Eminem’s music publishing company, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, alleging the tech company’s social media platforms allow widespread use of the rapper’s songs without proper licensing.

The complaint, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, says Meta has “created and stored” copies of Eminem’s songs on their servers and distributed them to “billions of users” around the world. According to the publisher, the rapper’s songs have been used in millions of videos across Facebook and Instagram that have collectively been viewed “billions of times.”

Further, through Meta’s online tools that encourage creating content based on another user’s content, users can “steal” music from others’ posts for use in their own, “resulting in exponential infringement,” the lawsuit claims.

Eight Mile Style asserts that Meta is “actively encouraging” users to stream the rapper’s music by making his songs available for use on Facebook, Instagram, and the messaging service WhatsApp. These apps’ algorithms also allegedly promote his music directly to users via “For You” pages and “Trending” features.

Eminem’s publisher brought the issue to Meta’s attention previously, the lawsuit claims, which resulted in the tech giant removing several Eminem tracks from its libraries. However, several alternative versions of his song “Lose Yourself,” including a karaoke version, an instrumental piano version, and a cover version, remained available to all users. Other prominent tracks from the artist also remained available—prompting the lawsuit.

“Meta’s years-long and ongoing infringement of the Eight Mile Compositions is another case of a trillion (with a ‘T’) dollar company exploiting the creative efforts of musical artists for the obscene monetary benefit of its executives and shareholders without a license and without regard to the rights of the owners of the intellectual property,” Eight Mile’s lawyers write.

The company is seeking damages, in addition to Meta’s “profits attributable to the infringement,” with maximum statutory damages that Eight Mile claims would exceed $109 million. Further, the company is seeking an injunction to cease further infringement.