Eminem Faces Unusual Circumstances in Copyright Battle May 12, 2017 In Eminem’s Copyright Fight, a Test of 'Sound-Alike' Recordings – The Recorder The Recorder interviewed Manatt’s Robert Jacobs, co-chair of the firm’s entertainment, sports and media litigation practice, for an article about a copyright battle between the American rapper Eminem and a New Zealand political party over a similar song. Legal spats between musicians and politicians are old hat in the United States, but the two-week copyright infringement trial in the suit brought by Eminem’s music publishers, Eight Mile Style, may be the first of its kind abroad, said Jacobs. “Most such claims in the U.S. have gone well for the artists who brought them,” he said. “However, unlike the U.S. matters, which almost always involved uses of the artist’s actual records, this involves a sound-alike recording.”
