Eminem wins £315,000 payout from New Zealand National party for ripping off Lose Yourself in election ad

Martin Coulter18 March 2019

Eminem has won £315,000 from a New Zealand political party after it ripped off one of his most famous songs for an election advert.

The conservative National party will be forced to pay the rap legend NZ$600,000 after it used a track with a similar melody and rhythm to Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' in a 2014 election advert.

The tune, titled 'Eminem Esque', was only slightly different to the original, leading the New Zealand High Court to rule it was "sufficiently similar" to count as copyright infringement.

The news comes less than a week after the National Party was forced out of government following the successful formation of a Labour-led coalition government last week.

The judgement weighed up the drum patterns, background chords and violin tones of both tracks, all of which were said to have "close similarities".

The party's lawyers said that the song used was not actually 'Lose Yourself' but a song purchased from an online stock music library.

Soundalike music producers operate worldwide, offering relatively cheap tracks for independent and low-budget productions.

Their offerings are designed to imitate popular songs which would normally require huge sums of money to acquire the rights to.

The National party's lawyers also tried to challenge the "inherent originality" of the song, claiming it "substantially borrowed from other music and genres" and the sections copied were "too generic" to be considered copyright infringement.

'Lose Yourself', the lead single from the soundtrack to Eminem's 2002 semi-autobiographical film '8 Mile', is one of the rapper's biggest hits, winning the Academy Award for best original song in 2003 and a Grammy for best rap song in 2004.

Adam Simpson, director of Simpsons solicitors, which acted on behalf of Eminem's music company, Eight Mile Style, and writers Jeff Bass and Luis Resto, said: "This decision is a warning to soundalike music producers and their clients everywhere.

"The ruling clarifies and confirms the rights of artists and songwriters. It sets a major precedent in New Zealand and will be influential in Australia, the UK and elsewhere."

Eminem previously sued Apple for using 'Lose Yourself' in one of its TV commercials without permission in 2004.

The advert was used in National's successful 2014 campaign, rather than this years. Last month it won the biggest share of the 2017 vote but New Zealand's proportional representation system meant a bloc combing Labour, New Zealand First and the Green party sent National back to the opposition benches.

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