Weblog Entry: Sue Yourself

[michelle]

On Friday, Eminem's company Eight Mile Style issued a lawsuit to Apple over the unauthorized use of his song "Lose Yourself" in a 2003 ad for iTunes.

Read about it in the latest Adtunes.com Weblog post!

Any thoughts? Opinions?

 

[dascoot]

My humble opinion.. it did nothing but promote his album at no charge to him.

 

[taikonaut]

i heard somewhere that said that iTunes used the song before eminem compyrighted it, soo......

 

[Dracos]

Highly unlikely, considering the chances of an artist releasing any type of art whatsoever without first copyrighting it are slim to none. I think this is just another bull$hit way for the fat cats to make more money than the millions upon millions of dollars they already have. It's the same deal with MP3 pirating, they're bitching about the money they could "theoretically" be losing, while at the same time it's promoting their band. They already have millions of dollars.. Why do they need more?! Pah.. Im not trying to be an advocate of MP3 pirating here either although, it *is* wrong by law to do so (However morally wrong it may be for the artists to complain) so therefore I will not condone it.

Man.. if people werent so insecure, and maybe grew up a bit.. the world would be a lot better of a place. Live and let live.

</rant>

 

[cultclassic]

Originally posted by taikonaut@Feb 26 2004, 07:39 PM
i heard somewhere that said that iTunes used the song before eminem compyrighted it, soo......

That doesn't matter. Legally, copyright protection begins as soon
as the artwork is created. It is automatic.

According to the US Copyright Office:
"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created
in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately
becomes the property of the author who created the work."

Applying for copyright is a way of formalizing this. It is not
necessary:
"The way in which copyright protection is secured is frequently
misunderstood. No publication or registration or other action in
the Copyright Office is required to secure copyright. "

Street musicians and starving artists who do not have money
to copyright their work, gets equal protection under the
US constitution.

Apple CEO Jobs called and Eminem's producer and tried to
persuade them to sell the rights. When they refused,
Apple went ahead and used the music anyway. I think
Apple figured, if they get sued, they'll settle it for the
amount they'd have had to pay anyway. In my opinion,
that is corporate arrogance.

 

[michelle]

Originally posted by cultclassic@Feb 26 2004, 11:07 PM
Apple CEO Jobs called and Eminem's producer and tried to
persuade them to sell the rights. When they refused,
Apple went ahead and used the music anyway. I think
Apple figured, if they get sued, they'll settle it for the
amount they'd have had to pay anyway. In my opinion,
that is corporate arrogance.

Where did you see/read/hear this? I haven't seen it in any of the articles I've read, be interested in reading if you have a link.

 

[cultclassic]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/2...t.ap/index.html

Quote From Above Article:

"The suit claims that Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs personally called
Joel Martin, manager of Eight Mile Style, and asked Martin and Eminem
to "rethink their position" about using the Grammy-winning song.

Eminem responded by ending discussions with Apple, according to the suit. "

 

[michelle]

Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I wonder, if that is definitely the case, why Jobs (and the ad agency) thought it was okay to go ahead.