14 DAY TRIAL // Apple's iTunes Store has been selling music from top artists for years now, but in a recent development it seems that at least some artists have been blissfully unaware all this time. Apple is being sued by artist Eminem's music publisher as a result. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Apple Inc. alleges that the company is violating copyrights by allowing unauthorized downloads of the artist's songs.
The core of the problem lies in the dispute whether the rights record labels hold to sell a recording artist's CDs include the rights to authorize music downloads, or whether further rights need to be secured from the music publishers who hold the copyrights to the lyrics and sheet music. Eminem's music publisher and copyright manager, Eight Mile Style LLC and Martin Affiliated LLC, consider that although Apple is paying a portion of the revenue from the sales of the songs to recording giant Universal Music Group, Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated have never authorized Universal to allow the downloads. Eight Mile and Martin claim to have demanded that Apple cease and desist its reproduction and distribution and that Apple has refused to comply.
While the exact numbers have never been disclosed, it is believed that of the 99 cents that Apple collects for each downloaded song, the company pays 70 cents the recording label and the label in turn pays 9 cents of that to the music publisher. Looking at the numbers it is easy to see why conflict might stir up.
However, despite whether or not Universal does have the rights to let Apple sell the music or not, the issue clearly lies between Eminem's music publisher and Universal Music Group, Apple is simply caught in the middle. Much like in the case of the iTunes Music Stores in Europe, Apple didn't really do anything wrong, they just worked within the system. If the system is at fault, then it is because of the way labels and artists do business, retailers like Apple having no influence on the matter.