Former Eminem employee pleads guilty to criminal copyright infringement

By Reuters News

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

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