No doubt you’re all well-versed aficionados in the weird and many splendored world of New Zealand politics, but in case you’re not entirely caught up on the saga of how Eminem somehow got dragged into a controversy during their last election, please to enjoy the highlights:
Back in 2014, the incumbent National Party, lead by then-Prime Minister John Key, was in the middle of campaigning for the election that they ultimately won on September 20th.
As most political parties are wont to do, they launched an advertising campaign across multiple platforms. One of their TV ads happened to look a little like this:
That familiar-but-not-quite-right sounding piece of music accompanying the ad was a production house tune entitled “Eminem Esque,” written as a soundalike for ‘Lose Yourself,’ that the Nationals claim they bought from a company called BeatBox and then began using throughout their re-election efforts.
The only problem was that the National Party assumed they didn’t have to ask anyone permission to use the tune. Enter: Marshall Mathers.
Eminem’s publishing company Eight Mile Style alleged that the usage of the soundalike tune in political advertisements breached several sections of the Copyright Act. The bizarre yarn even managed to catch the attention of John Oliver, who skewered the whole shebang on an episode of ‘Last Week Tonight.’
Fast forward to today, and we now have this: The case between Eight Mile Style and the National Party – aka Eminem versus the fucking New Zealand Government – has reached initial proceedings in court, and has gifted unto us all these incredible scenes where ‘Lose Yourself‘ is played in a formal courtroom while at least nine lawyers sit and listen in bone silence.
Representatives for Eight Mile Style then played the tune again, this time without lyrics, to prove their point that the riff is just as iconic and intrinsic to the songs as the words are.
Eight Mile Style claimed in court that ‘Lose Yourself‘ carries an advertorial value of multiple-millions, and that it is well known in the industry that the song is not readily available for advertising purposes.
Back in 2014, the National Party claimed usage of it was fair given that the song had appeared in other TV shows without complaint from the publishing company. That ah… doesn’t feel like it’s gonna hold up to scrutiny, TBH.
The hearing remains on going, and has been sat down for six days.
Source: Newshub.com.nz.
