Eminem and Apple Head To Court For iTunes Dispute
Eminem’s music publisher “Eight Mile Style” and Apple Inc. are headed to Detroit’s federal court over a contract dispute.
Eight Mile Style contends that Apple earned $2.58 million from iTunes downloads of various Eminem songs. Eight Mile attorney Richard Busch said during his opening statement Eminem’s contract with record company Aftermath Records did not give the company right to make his songs available for download on Apple’s popular iTunes service.
Eight Mile Style is claiming copyright infringement, alleging Apple did not have a license to reproduce and sell 93 songs at issue.
Aftermath Records, founded by rapper and producer Dr. Dre, is also a defendant in the case. The lawsuit claims Aftermath and Apple ignored Eight Mile’s refusal to sell the songs in downloaded digital format
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is presiding over the trial without a jury, which was agreed to by both sides.
Apple attorney Glenn Pomerantz countered that Eight Mile Style made money off the download purchases. He said the Eight Mile made 9 cents off each song that customers pay to download an Eminem song from iTunes, which opened in 2003.
Source: FreeP
admin on September 28th 2009 in Business