Eminem is no stranger to resorting to legal means to protect his work. His publisher Eight Mile Style reportedly launched a copyright lawsuit against AI music company Suno claiming they are using his tracks without their permission, according to AllHipHop. To be clear, the Detroit rapper himself is reportedly not a plaintiff in this case.
The lawsuit, seeking $41 million, reportedly appeared in San Francisco federal court. Eight Mile Style is accusing Suno of using copyrighted material from Em to train its generative model and result in output that resembles his work. Eight Mile Style owns the rights to 269 of Slim Shady's works, including "The Real Slim Shady," "Lose Yourself," and "Stan."
They want $150K for each composition plus $672K for the alleged removal of copyright information. However, this may not equate to the actual court award, as the total $41 million figure only represents what the plaintiffs are seeking.
"Suno exists to help people create new, original music, not to trade on anyone’s name or likeness, and we prohibit any unauthorized use of an artist’s work," Suno reportedly stated to Billboard. "To protect against this, we do not allow prompts for specific artists’ names and songs and work with third party providers to screen uploaded audio files and lyrics for potential misuse. We are always working to strengthen our guardrails and we will continue to add new safeguards that protect artists and our users."
This is one of many legal disputes over AI in music, whether they concern Suno or not. It also represents the murky water between copyright law, generative AI models, and users' output on platforms like Suno, as it's hard to tell where one starts and another begins.
Eminem's New Music
Elsewhere, Eminem's new music is catching flack. He teamed up with his Detroit friend Kid Rock for a new track, which angered many fans due to his previous anti-Donald Trump stances and Rock's MAGA alignment.
Ironically enough, Kid Rock said he used AI on that Eminem collab. We'll see where this legal dispute with Suno goes and what Slim Shady's next musical moves will provoke among fans.
