Eminem sues over NZ campaign song

In the run up to the New Zealand elections this week Eminem is suing the National Party.

The rap mogul claims the National Party infringed the copyright of his Grammy and Oscar-winning song Lose Yourself in its campaign song. His publishers Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC filed the suit in the NZ High Court in Wellington yesterday for damages.

“It is both disappointing and sadly ironic that the political party responsible for championing the rights of music publishers in New Zealand by the introduction of the three strikes copyright reforms should itself have so little regard for copyright,” said Joel Martin, who released a statement on behalf of the publishers.

The National Party has protested its track was published by Spider Cues Music in LA and licensed by an Australian-based supplier. The party has said it plans to defend the action “vigourously”.

Initially when Eminem’s people contacted the party two weeks ago, the Nationals agreed to drop the song. “However, this has not satisfied the complainant,” the party said in a statement.

Eminem has come to multiple legal blows in the past over copyright; in 2004 the rapper and his music publishers sued Apple Inc. for using Lose Yourself in one of its TV commercials without permission, and again in 2007 after Apple offered his music for download without permission and paid a portion of the revenue to Universal Music Group.