A New Zealand judge said Eminem’s lyrics “You own it, you better never let it go” turned out to be prophetic after ruling a political party breached copyright by using a song similar to Eminem’s Lose Yourself in its campaign ads.
New Zealand High Court Judge Helen Cull yesterday ordered the conservative National Party to pay the Detroit rapper’s publisher NZ$600,000 (US$415,000) plus interest.
The case earlier featured odd moments such as gowned lawyers listening studiously to profanity-laced rap and Eminem collaborator Jeff Bass flying in from Detroit to play the song’s distinctive opening riff, which he wrote.
“We think it’s a very strong judgement and a cautionary tale for people who make or use sound-alikes around the world,” said Adam Simpson, a Sydney-based lawyer who represented Eminem publisher Eight Mile Style.
“We hope that we see more original music in advertising as a result, and that writers get properly acknowledged and rewarded for their hard work,” he said.
Speaking by telephone from Detroit, Eight Mile Style publisher Joel Martin said he had been infuriated during the trial by the defense’s absurd contention that Lose Yourself was not original because it used the same chords as other songs.
“They could have said anything but question its originality,” he said.
Martin said he had not yet discussed the ruling with Eminem, also known as Marshall Mathers III, but was glad the rapper had not been needed to travel to New Zealand “to watch the paint dry in the court room.”
National Party President Peter Goodfellow said in a statement that he was disappointed with the ruling.
He said the party purchased the music in good faith from an Australia-based library that had bought it from a US supplier.
He said the party was considering its next steps and had already lodged a claim against the suppliers and licensers of the sound-alike track.
The National Party ran a television ad 186 times that used the song Eminem Esque during its successful 2014 election campaign before pulling the ad off the air.
In her 132-page ruling, Cull said Eminem Esque sounded like a copy and was a copy, reproducing the essence of Lose Yourself.
She said it was no coincidence the composer of Eminem Esque had the music to the original in front of him when he wrote his song.
The judge based the amount of the award on a hypothetical license fee that the party might have paid to use the song.
She said that Eight Mile Style rarely grants permission to use Lose Yourself in advertising.
Cull stopped short of awarding additional damages, saying the party had only used the song after receiving professional advice that it could do so and had not acted recklessly.
She has yet to rule on who will pay the hefty legal costs.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not