Eminem publisher Eight Mile Style filed an important appeal last Thursday against Spotify, claiming that the streaming giant was not allowed to host about 250 Eminem songs, while relying on the Modernization of Music Act promulgated last year. improve royalty payments for songwriters. The news has been reported for the first time by the Hollywood Reporter.
The lawsuit, filed in Nashville on Wednesday, accuses Spotify, the Stockholm-based online streaming giant, worth $ 26 billion, for failing to meet its obligations under the MMA, while aiming for the # 39, act itself.
He claims that Spotify has broadcast Eminem's work billions of times without a license. "Spotify has not accounted for Eight Mile nor paid Eight Mile for these feeds, but instead sent random payments of some kind, which purport to represent only a fraction of those feeds," says -t it. It also states that Spotify has placed "Lose Yourself" in a category called "Copyright Control" category for songs for which the owner is not known, the "absurd" caller that Spotify would be unable to locate the copyright owner of any of the most well known songs in history. "
Contacted by Variety, a Spotify representative had no comment.
Lawyer Richard Busch, who represented the heirs of Marvin Gaye in the 2015 edition of the Blur Lines case (2015), represented Eight Mile in the case. The family had then won a decision of $ 5.3 million against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams on the grounds that their song had been raped. Gaye got the right to dispute whether Universal Music Group had asked if digital downloads should be classified as "licenses" or "sales".
While the music modernization law, promulgated by President Trump last October, was seen as a huge victory by songwriters and publishers, Eminem's lawsuit targets what it describes as weaknesses in the law.
"First, according to its terms, the MMA Limitation of Liability section only applies to compositions for which the copyright owner was not known, and to works never equaled before (compositions not corresponding to sound recordings before), and not to works "corresponding to DMP [Digital Music Provider] knew the owner of the copyright and had just committed an infringement of the copyright, "reads in part in the complaint of Eight Mile, stating that Spotify" did not engage in the commercially reasonable efforts required to match the sound recordings to the compositions of Eight Mile as the MMA requires ".
The MMA was partly proposing a form of amnesty for copyright infringement, and Eight Mile challenges the constitutionality of this element. She declares Spotify and "knew what they were doing" in "the unconstitutional take of Eight Mile and other acquired rights, it was not for public, but rather for the private profit of private companies. "
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Eminem through the years
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Rap artist Eminem. (Photo by Marion Curtis / DMI / LIFE Photo Collection via Getty Images / Getty Images)
White American rapper Eminem, winner of the Best Hip Hop Award, delivers his speech of thanks to the 1999 MTV Europe Music Awards. (Photo by Chris Bacon – PA Images / PA Images via Getty Images)
UNSPECIFIED – 01 JANUARY: Photo of EMINEM (Photo by Nigel Crane / Redferns)
NEW YORK CITY – SEPTEMBER 9: Rapper Eminem participates in the 16th MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 1999 at the Metropolitan Opera House of Lincoln Center in New York. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD – AUGUST 18: Rapper Eminem attends the Hip-Hop Music Awards on August 18, 1999 at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE – Episode 1 – On the photo: Eminem's musical guest occurs on October 7, 2000 – (Photo: Dana Edelson / NBC / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
378549 01: Hip Hop artist Eminem (aka Marshall Mathers III) enters the hearing room of Judge Norris Langford at the County Court of Oakland in Pontiac, in the Michigan, September 18, 2000. Eminem was accused of having directed a firearm at someone else. (Photo by Bill Pugliano / Liaison)
(EXCLUSIVITY, premium rates apply) Eminem at the 27th edition of the American Music Awards (Barry King / WireImage photo)
Eminem at the Reading Festival in Britain – August 27, 2001, Eminem (photo by Brian Rasic / Getty Images)
Eminem at the MTV European Music Awards 2002 MTV European Music Awards 2002 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic, Inc.)
Eminem at MTV Video Music Awards 2003 – Behind the scenes and audience at Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York, USA. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic, Inc.)
Madonna and Eminem at the MTV Video Music Awards 2003 – Performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York, New York, USA. *** Exclusive *** (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic)
Eminem at the 11th edition of the MTV Europe Awards 2004 at the Tor di Valle in Rome, Italy. (Photo of Anthony Harvey – PA Images / PA Images via Getty Images)
Eminem and 50 Cent at MTV Studios – Times Square in New York, NY (Photo by James Devaney / WireImage)
New Orleans – October 30: Eminem performs at the 2009 Voodoo Experience in City Park on October 30, 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Barry Brecheisen / WireImage)
Eminem performs at the 2010 Epicenter Music Festival at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder / Corbis via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 5: Eminem speaks on stage at the WSJ. 2014 Innovator Awards Magazine at the Museum of Modern Art on November 5, 2014 in New York. (Photo by Mike Coppola / Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TX – OCTOBER 11: Eminem performs at the Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on October 11, 2014 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller / FilmMagic)
DOSSIER – In the archive photo of July 20, 2015, rapper Eminem attends the creation of "Southpaw" in New York. In a tweet from Thursday, December 14, 2017, Eminem announced the organization of a promotional event Friday in Detroit in the style of an ephemeral restaurant offering a menu featuring "mom's spaghetti". The event is to promote his new album, "Revival". (Photo by Evan Agostini / Invision / AP, File)
Eminem performs at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on Saturday, June 9, 2018 in Manchester, Tennessee (Photo by Amy Harris / Invision / AP)
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