Former Eminem employee pleads guilty to criminal copyright infringement

By Blake Brittain

Oct 22 (Reuters) - A former employee of rapper Eminem pleaded guilty on Thursday to a criminal copyright infringement charge for selling unreleased music from the rapper without permission, according to a filing in Michigan federal court.

• Joseph Strange, 48, faces up to five years in prison for selling several unreleased Eminem songs in 2024 for around $50,000, the plea agreement said

• The agreement said that the tracks were later leaked to the internet and streamed between eight and nine million times

• Strange worked for Eminem, whose given name is Marshall Mathers, at a Ferndale, Michigan, music studio from approximately 2007 to 2021

• Strange's conduct "undermined both legal and artistic rights," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement

• "Joe Strange is a good man whose children have suffered greatly in all of this," Strange's attorney Wade Fink said in a statement. "It is a far more complicated and nuanced matter than a man just unabashedly stealing."

• Spokespeople for Eminem's label Universal Music Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment