In February the Associated Press reported that hip-hop star Eminem had filed suit against Apple, claiming the company did not get permission to use Eminem’s hit song “Lose Yourself” in a 2003 television ad spot for the iTunes Music Store. Now the news service reports that a federal judge has allowed the suit to proceed.
“Lose Yourself” was the anthem of a movie called “Eight Mile” also starring Eminem. Apple used the song briefly in 2003 for an iTunes Music Store ad spot. Broadcast and available to view online during the summer of 2003, the ad, featuring a 10 year old boy, was one of several made as part of a campaign that featured regular people singing their favorite songs aloud while listening to them on the iPod.
When the suit was launched earlier this year, Eminem’s lawyers said that Apple and its ad agency had sought permission to use the song and were refused. The attorneys declared that the hip-hop star has never nationally endorsed a product and if he did, he would demand “a significant amount of money, possibly in excess of $10 million.”
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled Monday that the suit can proceed against Apple, media company Viacom upon whose MTV cable television network the ads aired, and advertising firm TBWA/Chiat/Day, the company that produced the spots for Apple.
A lawyer representing the defendants in the case claims that no one who viewed the spot would confuse the young singer’s interpretation of Eminem’s song as an endorsement by the musician himself.
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