Eminem’s Publishing Company Sues Meta for $109 Million

Eminem’s publisher is taking Meta to court, but Eminem himself is not directly involved in the lawsuit. CBS News reports that the rap superstar’s publishing company, Eight Mile Style, has filed a $109 million copyright lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Michigan against Mark Zuckerberg’s social media company. Eight Mile Style is accusing Meta of using 243 songs across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp without permission.

“Despite their not being licensed, the recordings of the Eight Mile Compositions have been reproduced and synchronized with visual content on Meta’s platforms across millions of videos, which have been viewed billions of times.” reads the lawsuit. “Meta has also created online tools within their services, such as Original Audio and Reels Remix, which allow and encourage its users to steal Eight Mile Style’s music from another user’s posted audiovisual content and then use it in their own subsequent videos without proper attribution or license, resulting in exponential infringement.”

The lawsuit alleges that Meta has known it needs a license to reproduce and distribute Eminem’s music. Meta entered into a license agreement with Audiam, a digital music royalty collection firm, in 2020. Back then, Meta unsuccessfully negotiated an Eight Mile Style license as part of the Audiam license.

Meta has responded with a statement.

“Meta has licenses with thousands of partners around the world and an extensive global licensing program for music on its platforms. Meta had been negotiating in good faith with Eight Mile Style, but rather than continue those discussions, Eight Mile Style chose to sue.”

Eight Mile Style is seeking $150,000 for each song used without permission and for each platform where Meta made those songs available. The suit also requests a court order to stop the company from further using its songs.