Lawyers acting on behalf of Eminem are suing the National Party for unauthorised use of the rap giant's hit song Lose Yourself, the New Zealand Herald reports.
The Herald says a claim filed in the High Court today alleges the National Party used elements of Eminem's Grammy-winning song in TV ads screening during their election campaign.
“The claim we have filed alleges copyright infringement. Eminem's publishers were not approached for permission to use any of Eminem's songs for this campaign advertisement," said spokesman Joel Martin.
"It is both disappointing and sadly ironic that the political party responsible for championing the rights of music publishers in New Zealand by the introduction of the 3 strikes copyright reforms should itself have so little regard for copyright.”
Here’s the song:
And here’s one of the campaign ads:
In a statement, the National Party says it completely rejects the allegation.
The National Party purchased the music in question from recognised production music supplier “Beatbox”, based in Australia and Singapore. The music was originally published by Spider Cues Music, a well-established Los Angeles-based provider of music to the film and entertainment industry. As with all works licensed by the Beatbox library music service, the National Party was assured the music in question did not infringe any copyright and was an original work. Regardless, as our advertising was moving on to different material at the time of the complaint, over two weeks ago, we were able to accommodate the complaining artist and undertake not to continue using the track. However, this has not satisfied the complainant.