On Monday, Eight Mile Style, LLC, the company that administers the rights to Eminem's music, filed a lawsuit against Facebook.
The complaint filed in Michigan federal court not only accuses the popular social network of lifting one of Eminem's songs for the April launch of a new application called "Facebook Home," but tells the story of how Facebook's advertising company attempted to use Eminem to attract the liking of Mark Zuckerberg, and how, when threatened with copyright allegations, the ad agency's response was to attack hip-hop producer (and sometime Eminem collaborator) Dr. Dre for being a flagrant thief who had stolen the song in question from Michael Jackson.
Read Full Complaint here... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/sites/default/files/custom/Documents/ESQ/eminem_facebook.pdf
This copyright infringement lawsuit adds another dimension by discussing willfulness in the context of likes and dislikes.
According to the complaint, when Zuckerberg held that April event to unveil "Facebook Home," its new mobile software, he introduced an advertisement entitled "Airplane," which featured music described as substantially similar to "Under the Influence," from Eminem and D12 appearing on the Marshall Mathers LP.
The choice of music is said to be no accident. Zuckerberg reportedly called himself "Slim Shady" -- one of Eminem's monikers -- in an early website he created in 1999.
The use of song in the advertisement was allegedly picked by Portland, Oregon-based ad firm Wieden + Kennedy. The lawsuit says that "W+K incorporated said music into the Airplane advertisement in an effort to curry favor with Facebook by catering to Zuckerberg’s personal likes and interests."
After the ad was picked up online, the lawsuit implies that ordinary observers noticed the similarity of the music and that, as a result, Facebook then released the Airplane advertisement on its official YouTube channel but in altered form.
"The alteration of the Airplane advertisement was an admission that Facebook knew it had infringed on the Eminem/D12 Composition," says the lawsuit.
Read More... http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/eminems-music-publisher-suing-facebook-525687
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