Content or artistic merit aside, I said "demeaning" because its his work being used for to sell a product.

Don't you remember how pissed Val Kilmer was in The Doors, when the other band members tried to use a song in a car commmercial?

Shouldn't he have to make some music that's actually his own before suing people for using it?

I am a fairly big hip-hop listener. I am into underground Hip-Hop acts like Aesop Rock, Atmosphere, Sage Francis, Eyedea and other bigger albeit just as good acts such as Blackstar (Mos Def & Talib Kweli), The Roots, Common, etc. I'm just trying to say I know my Hip-Hop.

I am not a huge Eminem fan but I do recognize he's got some talent. It's all slowly but surely going to his head, so I hope he can come back from whatever ego trip he's been on for the past two years.

Robert Plant did not want to let Cadillac use Rock n Roll for their commercial. He was outvoted by Page and Jones however.

2004-02-24 06:17:09 PM Lt.Dan

Eminem should sue Linux, because the kid in their dumb commercial ads looks like him.
--

2004-02-24 06:28:48 PM slobarnuts
There is no company called "Linux", it is impossible to sue "Linux"
--

Why don't you clue Darl McBride from the SCO in on that.

Shouldn't he have to make some music that's actually his own before suing people for using it?

Please elaborate. Yeah yeah, I know some rappers sample other music.

I love watching all the blind-faith-in-apple people getting upset. You can bet that if the story involved anything related to Microsoft, the same farkers would be giggling with joy.

Yet another opportunity for an applicable use of the IRONY tag shot....

Bing! 15 minutes of fame are up ,don't forget to take Britnay and Puffy wit ya....


~Man, music really bites right now!

2004-02-24 05:52:59 PM Hyoga


Shoop008
Acctually, Led Zeppelin is very conservative about letting their music out. There was a huge appeal to have their songs on the soundtrack for the movie Dazed and Confuzed (the title taken directly from another of their songs. None of Led Zep's song ended up showing up in the movie or soundtrack. Since Jimmy Page produced all the albums, he basically says what goes. The earliest release of a 'Zeppelin song has been the Immigrant Song on the School of Rock movie.

They made them take out 3 seconds of "Stairway to Heaven" (no stairway! denied!) from the video release of "Wayne's World."

Also, I'm not sure how this applies to sampling, but if you write a song, you cannot prevent someone from covering it. Either way you still get royalties, though.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_324b.html

This serves Steve Jobs right for screwing over Disney.

Please elaborate. Yeah yeah, I know some rappers sample other music.

Oh, I'm sorry, I was just trolling to rile the trolls, however they seem to have moved on to plumper pastures. My post wasn't directed at the coherent, sorry for any trouble.

I suppose I could argue lots of his...music...is just the instrumentals of other popular music, with him saying stuff. But as I don't pay any attention to the him or listen to his....music, I couldn't discuss the matter from an informed perspective.

I just wanted to sue... oops, I mean USE, the word Asshat.

I dig the eminem... I like the music, it's good. I don't like a lot of rap, so there's clearly something about him that sets him apart from the pack.

As far as Jobs suggesting that he reconsider... heh. I'm not sure which party deserves the Asshat crown more in this particular story, and I'm a fan of both.

Yes, the farkin_monkey is a PowerBook type of monkey.

Has a case like this ever come up before? Apple did not use Eminem's original recording in the commercial. Had they, Eminem would win the lawsuit, no question. What they did was, effectively, use a cover of Eminem's song. You are allowed to cover a song without permission, but must pay royalties. So what happens when you are not selling the covered song, but instead using it to sell something?

Actually, no it doesn't aGodinmyownworld. Maybe if you turned off yr shiatty radio and went down to the nearest *good* record store you'll find a lot of good new bands/cds/etc.

I'm an Apple fan, and I'll admit that someone either at Apple or the ad agency screwed up. Still, $10 million sounds high for a kid singing your music a cappella to promote iPod sales.

My two cents worth...

My understanding is that the author of a song can only control who records the first version of the song, and after that it may be covered by anybody. The child singing the sing in the commercial would constitute a new version of the song, for which permission cannot be denied.

Read a better explanation here, from The Straight Dope. Article: "Must you get permission to record someone else's song?"

"singing the sing" should be "singing the song"

\needs to learn to typpe beter...

The commercial in question:
Jacob.mov - QuickTime required

The kid is basically rapping about 3% of the lyrics with no music playing. This is NOT sampling, although it could be a copyright violation in another way. Plus, why aren't they just suing TWA/Chiat Day (the ad agency) .. aren't they supposed to clear the legal stuff before shooting this material?

2004-02-24 06:15:55 PM Sgt Otter
I have a hard time Apple would fark something like this up. If Apple is selling the song on its iTunes website, there's probably some very small print Eminem missed that says "in exchange for selling your songs, we are authorized to use it in Apple promotions."

If thats the case, I hope eminem gets laughed out of court.

As as this is, I find it more . Stan was a straight rip from Dido. Also, this is the reason that "Rappers" actually make money, by sampling and being a CREATIVE DRACULA and making us hate a song we loved, just because it was co-oped into a song we hate. Why can't Rappers sample songs we hate?

What is with all the people saying this should've been "ironic" or that Eminem has no talent? This feels like a newsgroup that has been discovered by the AOL community and has hundreds of "me too." or "no, you're wrong stupid." posts following every legitimate statement.

I think we're all missing the real point here. I am thinking that Eminem has just stumbled upon a very interesting way to get a free iPod!

btw, rap =! hip hop

You put on womens' clothing and hang around in bars?

does anyone else think its messed up that apple is trying to market eminem's music to 10 year olds?

I an' wa-ev-ur you tay I an'
Ef I wut'ant, den why would I tay I an'
In tha pay-pa, tha nus, everytay I an'
Ray-t-io won't even tay my jan'

I wanted to go for Clarence, the Fifth Beatle but couldn't
find a picture and this ended up being the better idea anyways. At least it fits the actual article and isn't a random excuse to make an 80's SNL reference.

"Try listening to his albums before declaring him talentless. He's got the best rhymes I've ever heard, for real."

IMHO: It's a lot easier to make good rhymes when your songs have no discernable content. (Yes, I listened to him. He was on the stereo that my coworkers decided to play at the last place I worked. they were skinny white kids, so I'm guessing they needed something to look up/down to.) For the record, this does not apply just to Eminem, but also to 90% of rap. The other 10% is the 10% that I like.

Also IMHO, Apple should be both firing and sueing whatever ad exec was in charge of this commercial, because it's making me feel dirty for having used the iTunes store a few hours ago. That kid is annoying as hell.

/needs shower

I welcome our new Apple haters

Eminem is entitled to the rights regarding music that he created, that includes lyrics. Of anyone, Steve Jobs should appreciate this from that whole Windows stealing from MacOS controversy, right? Apple set out to make money by using lyrics created by Eminem. Not just one line, a whole damn verse and chorus. That exceeds fair use and sampling.

Plus, Eminem had permission to use Dido's "Thank You" on Stan. If no one noticed, she was credited with a "featuring Dido" credit in the song title.

And, until someone else comes up with a way to make "orange" rhyme with another word, I'll believe Eminem is the best rapper alive.

/Boo-ya rant

You know what the funny part of all this is? I am reading all of these posts while listening to stolen music on my iPod mini....I think I will skip to an Eminem song, just for shiats and giggles.

And, until someone else comes up with a way to make "orange" rhyme with another word, I'll believe Eminem is the best rapper alive.

You wanna know how to rhyme that rhymless word of orange?
It's simple and as easy as making shameless whores whinge.

*too lazy to scroll up* someone was WRONG!!! It was "lose yourself" and not "the real slim shady" in the commercial.

/post police, pull over jackass

Out of curiosity, what does Eminem use to rhyme orange?

Hard rock sucks, classic rock sucks, metal sucks.

Led Zeppelin is one of the most laughably bad bands I've ever heard.

SherKhan
Um, door hinge?

Give me a break! Eminem's career is OVER! He should be happy that ANYONE wants to listen to his crap and get over it!

No shiat nothing on this earth as sad and pathetic as a white rapper.

farking no talent ass clown

johnnyactionfngr-

have fun rotting in hell

Led Zeppelin = greatest band to walk planet earth.. or any other planet EVER

/me like Zep

Anyone who says Eminem is talentless is undoubtedly over the age of 33, and uptight

Anyone who can't see a manufactured pop-star for what they really are is undoubtedly underthe age of 33 and easily fooled.

And I bet you thought 8 mile is a true story.

Ok, I guess Eminem is officially an idiot.

i like boobies.

wow, scoffing at a well-known white rapper! i would've never expected that!

please... keep some more of this brilliant (and highly original, i might add) schitt coming.

(Shakes head).... Only in America.

Kiss my arse Mr. Mathers

I love how an article can be about a rapper (Eminem) suing a computer company (Apple) yet the discussions revolve around a rock band whose influence far exceded their actual talent (Led Zeppelin).

But since the topic has been thrown off course...
Why doesn't anyone make epic concept albums anymore? There is a few new ones here and there, but for the most part it seems as if "artists" are more interested in throwing out an hour long album with 5 minutes worth of listenable material on them. Material from concept albums seem very difficult to integrate into commercials and motion pictures. Just out of curiosity, how many Pink Floyd songs are appearing in commercials and movies at this point in time?

has anyone thought about this: what if apple or the ad agency just got the rights to do the song from the record company? as an artist you really don't typically own any of the rights to the songs... except maybe mechanical writes... but apple didn't release jacob's version on cd...

maybe they did get permission... and Em is just to stupid to know he truely doesn't own his songs.

For some reason I am compelled to agree with eyesonlyus.

I am SOOOOOOO tired of mighty titanic Apple feeling like it can just run roughshod over the little guys. I think the company should be broken up.