A Wellington High Court judge cues up Em’s ‘Lose Yourself’ (left), Em’ in the official video for the song (right); Photo: Newshub/YouTube
Hot on the heels of his anti-Trump cypher making waves round the rap and political community, Eminem has also been working the courtroom this year. Or at least his legal team is.
On Wednesday, October 25 New Zealand’s main conservative party was found guilty of ripping off Eminem’s classic hit “Lose Yourself.”
The party’s main line of defense: they bought a production called ‘Eminem Esque’ legally from a company called BeatBox, and pleaded that they did not violate New Zealand copyright laws.
The National Party used the ad during its 2014 election campaign, running the commercial 186 times. High Court Judge Helen Cull ordered the National Party to pay the publisher (Eight Mile Style) $414,000 (NZ$600,000) plus interest.
The whole fiasco quietly started in January of this year, when New Zealand media covered the proceedings, blessing the internet with some A/V inside the courtroom, which swelled into a segment on Last Week Tonight on John Oliver later in the spring.
To add insult to injury Judge Cull then recited lines from the Oscar-winning song, saying, “And prophetically so rapped Eminem: You better lose yourself in the music, the moment. You own it, you better never let it go.”
Any situation involving Eminem is bound to have theatrics, and the open-and-shut case certainly had a few oddball moments, including Eminem collaborator Jeff Bass flying in from Detroit to recreate the song’s distinct opening riff.
Lawyers on both sides were also seen in court carefully pouring over Eminem’s lyrics. Eight Mile Style publisher Joel Martin was upset by the defense’s claim that “Lose Yourself” wasn’t original because it utilized chords from other songs.
National Party President Peter Goodfellow expressed disappointment as well, releasing a statement saying that he purchased the music in good faith from an Australia-based library that had bought it from a U.S. supplier. Judge Cull didn’t buy it and said that the song was a copy, and that it was no mistake that the composer had the original in front of them as they were making the song.
Judge Cull based the award off the hypothetical licensing fee that would have been charged had The National Party went through the proper channels. Factoring into the judgement, was the fact that Eight Mile Style rarely granted permission to use “Lose Yourself” in advertising.
“We think it’s a very strong judgment, and a cautionary tale for people who make or use sound-alikes around the world,” said Adam Simpson, a Sydney-based lawyer who represented 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.”
Watch Newshub’s video of the proceedings, followed by neccessary commentary by John Oliver, one of the National Party’s ads that ignited the lawsuit, and Em’s original video for “Lose Yourself” below.