U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor heard opening arguments yesterday in her bench trial of Eight Mile Style, LLC v. Apple, Inc. in a dispute about payments for digital downloads of Eminem rap songs.
From The Detroit News:
In his opening statement, Eight Mile attorney Richard Busch said unique wording in Eminem’s contract with Aftermath Records — a Universal Music Group label — requires the record company to get separate deals before it can sell downloads of Eminem’s songs over the Internet.
The record company “knew that they did not have the right to make these songs available for digital download without a separate digital download agreement,” Busch told … Taylor.
That’s why the company was willing to sign a separate agreement for music download rights to “Lose Yourself,” the Academy-award winning hit song from the film “Eight Mile,” which chronicles Eminem’s rise to stardom from his humble birth in the Detroit area as Marshall Mathers, Busch said.
But Apple attorney Glenn Pomerantz told the judge the case is all about greed.
Eight Mile Style wants the court to ignore the plain language of the record contract, he said.
“What is really at issue in this case is that they want Apple’s profits,” Pomerantz said. “That’s what they are here asking for.”
Eight Mile Style was paid 9.1 cents for each music download covered by its contract with Aftermath and continued to cash checks that included such revenue even after it filed the federal lawsuit in 2007, Pomerantz told the judge.
The Michigan Lawyer 