THE SOURCE TAKES THE RAP AS EMINEM SUES AGAIN

The rapper Eminem seems to be turning into a voracious litigant. His latest foray into the wonderful world of copyright proceedings has resulted in hip-hop magazine The Source being found in contempt of court for publishing the full lyrics to two of the rapper’s songs, according to the BBC. The songs, which allegedly have racist overtones, were written by an eighteen year-old Eminem. He claims that they were composed as a foolish and hot-headed response to breaking up with a black girlfriend. However, the magazine claims they are racist and offensive to black women. In December, Judge Lynch found that The Source could rely on a fair-dealing defence, but that this only entitled them to reproduce eight lines of the song. Nonetheless, the magazine reproduced all the lyrics on its website and the recordings and Eminem sued for copyright infringement. On Thursday, Judge Lynch found in Eminem’s favour. It is claimed that the litigation is part of an ongoing spat between Eminem and the founder of the source who is also a rapper.



The IPKat feels that while it’s a good idea for the quoting of sections of a work to be allowed to enable it to be credibly reviewed, he wouldn’t want to see the fair-dealing defence used as a cover for someone to reproduce the work to enable him to compete with the original author.



Eminem lyrics here

Eminem here

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