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Remember that great iTunes commercial that had the little kid singing the song about how "these hoes is all on him?" Well, I'm reliably informed by people who watch MTV during the 7 minutes a day they actually show music videos that the song used in there was "Lose Yourself" by Mr. inem. His people claim Apple didn't have permission to use the song:
- "Eminem has never nationally endorsed any commercial products and ... even if he were interested in endorsing a product, any endorsement deal would require a significant amount of money, possibly in excess of $10 million," according to the 15-page lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit.
The suit claims that Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs (news - web sites) personally called Joel Martin, manager of Eight Mile Style, and asked Martin and Eminem to "rethink their position" about using the Grammy-winning song.
Where to begin with this one?
First off, I find it impossible to believe that the ad in question would have cleared Apple legal without all the necessary permissions. Then we get into the question of which permissions woudl be necessary.
There are, as I understand it, two kinds of licensing for music. One for the song, and one for a particular recording of a song. Apple probably got permission to use the lyrics (readily available from the publisher), but since they weren't using the actual recording of Eminem, didn't get (and probably don't legally need) the second licensing rights.
The story says that this is a copyright suit, but the only way I can figure that this makes any sense is if they're suing Apple for implying that Mathers was endorsing iTunes, as stated in the excerpt. Anyway, it should quickly become apparent whether Apple had the rights to use the song lyrics, or they didn't. Now, whether that would confuse people into thinking that Eminem endorsed the place where his music was being sold is another matter altogether.
Bill's been using Macs since the late 80s. When he's not making smartass remarks to amuse Kirk Hiner, he enjoys fighting for the user.
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