“The clock’s run out, time’s up, over—blaow!” A New Zealand Political Party Has to Pay Eminem £300,000
Back in 2014 a New Zealand political party had a TV spot that featured music that heavily resembled Eminem’s “Lose yourself”. I suppose they wanted to entice the youth voters or establish themselves as some kind of underdogs, but the campaign backfired. Here is that advert:
A court found that a “Lose Yourself”-inspired song they used – literally called “Eminem Esque” breached his copyright.
It’s been a tough week for the New Zealand National party. First they lost the national election to the Labour Party and earlier today a New Zealand court found them guilty of ripping off Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”.
New Zealand’s high court ruled that the National party’s use of a track titled “Eminem Esque” during the 2014 election campaign was “sufficiently similar” to the Detroit rapper’s original song that it impinged on copyright. The court awarded Eminem’s publisher NZ $600,000 (~£314,000) in compensation.
Though the ruling caps off a dark week for the National Party, we have to thank them for being responsible for the bizarre beauty of a New Zealand court listening to “Lose Yourself”:
