Meta Lawsuit Filed by Eminem’s Publisher Moves Forward

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A federal judge denies Meta’s motion to dismiss a copyright infringement claim from Eminem’s publisher, allowing the case to move forward.

After Meta filed to dismiss Eminem publisher Eight Mile Style’s direct copyright infringement claim, a federal judge has denied the motion, allowing the case to head into discovery. Eight Mile Style is seeking maximum statutory damages totaling $109.4 million, alleging that Meta stored 243 of its copyrighted compositions across the music libraries of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp without permission.

The publisher sued the Facebook parent last year, alleging that its catalog was featured across the music libraries of its platforms without a valid license. Meta’s lawyers called the damages request “eye-popping” and the lawsuit itself “fanciful,” arguing that the allegations were far too broad to survive past an initial motion to dismiss.

But Judge Brandy R. McMillion disagreed, ruling on Tuesday that the complaint “states enough to plausibly claim infringing acts by Meta.”

“[Eight Mile] alleges that Meta placed all 243 of the aforementioned works in the respective music libraries of all three of its platforms. Accepted as true, this fact can plausibly be construed as constituting reproduction of the copyrighted works,” the judge wrote. “Because the Copyright Act gives owners the exclusive right to reproduce their work, storage of the Eight Mile compositions, without permission, would create an unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted material.”

However, the judge did agree to dismiss Eight Mile’s secondary infringement claims against Meta. They sought additional damages based on the allegation that Meta not only stored unlicensed music but induced “billions” of individual users to add illegal tracks to their social media posts. Those claims didn’t hold water, as Judge McMillion explained, because Eight Mile did not provide any examples of supposedly infringing posts.

“While Meta may encourage its users to use the platforms’ tools, the court is unwilling to equate an encouragement to use the tools with an encouragement to infringe, especially when the tools can be used in a non-infringing way,” wrote the judge.

Notably, the order does not specify whether the secondary claims are dismissed with or without prejudice. That means Eight Mile may be able to rework them into an amended lawsuit, if it can provide the examples necessary to back up its claims.