14 DAY TRIAL // Eminem is going after Facebook, through his publisher Eight Mile Style, LLC, for the Facebook Home ad called “Airplane,” which, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week, illegally samples the rapper’s “Under the Influence.”
The ad in question is embedded above. The track, a collaboration with D12, is available here, but *discretion is heavily recommended before clicking it because it contains graphic language that might offend.
In court documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Eight Mile Style claims that the ad agency working for Facebook on the ad knowingly ripped off the rapper in the hope that the inclusion of the sample in the commercial would ingratiate them with Mark Zuckerberg, who is a well-known Eminem fan.
The publisher also says that, when they contacted the ad agency to demand that the song be pulled, all they got back was a letter accusing Dr. Dre, Em’s friend and collaborator, of stealing the song from Michael Jackson.
The irony is that Dre had nothing to do with “Under the Influence” because it’s Eminem and D12’s.
Also then, the ad agency slightly altered the music in the ad so as to avoid the copyright infringement accusation, the lawsuit alleges – to little success because “the company owns rights to derivatives” as well, THR says.