Eminem‘s publisher Eight Mile Style has filed a lawsuit claiming Spotify has infringed the copyright of hundreds of songs, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In a suit filed in Nashville on Wednesday, Eight Mile accused Spotify of willful copyright infringement by illegally reproducing “Lose Yourself” and about 250 of the rapper’s songs on the streaming service. Eminem is one of the most-streamed artists on Spotify, but according to documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Spotify has no license to stream Eminem’s music.
Eight Mile also invoked the Music Modernization Act, a federal law enacted last October. The law is supposed to guarantee artists and songwriters compensation for digital streams. According to the suit, Spotify has not lived up to the requirements set by the MMA in failing to pay Eight Mile. “Spotify has not accounted to Eight Mile or paid Eight Mile for these streams,” the complaint reads. “But instead remitted random payments of some sort, which only purport to account for a fraction of those streams.”
Additionally, the documents claim that Spotify has placed “Lose Yourself” into a category called “Copyright Control,” reserved for songs for which the owner is unknown. “Lose Yourself,” written by Eminem and included on the soundtrack for the 2002 film Eight Mile, is one of the rapper’s most famous songs.
Eight Mile is requesting Spotify’s profits on Eminem’s discography as payment for the copyright infringement. The lawsuit also seeks a judicial declaration that Spotify does not qualify for limitation from damages under the Music Modernization Act and another declaration that the law’s retroactive elimination of damages available for copyright infringement is unconstitutional.
