Eminem Lawsuit: Rapper's Song Publisher Suing Facebook Over Use of 'Under the Influence' in 'Airplane' Ad, 2013 Tour Dates

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With his highly anticipated new 2013 album set to be coming out any day now, Detroit rapper Eminem is setting his sights on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. According to the Detroit Free Press, Eminem's song publisher is suing Facebook and its ad agency for infringing on "Slim Shady's" copyright. According to the complaint, Eminem's song publisher claims that a Facebook ad titled "Airplane" used music from Eminem's 2000 "Under the Influence" song.

The ad was broadcast on April 4 when Zuckerberg himself was featured in a webcast announcing a new interface for the Android, called "Facebook Home." The Detroit Free Press reports that a few days after the webcast first aired, a new version of the commercial with new music was posted on YouTube. The complaint from Eight Mile Style claims the advertising agency copied the song "in an effort to curry favor with Facebook by catering to Zuckerberg's personal likes and interests, and/or to invoke the same irreverent theme."

According to MLive Detroit, Fellow rapper Dr. Dre has been brought into the lawsuit after the ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy, reportedly alleged that Dr. Dre composed "Under the influence." However, the plaintiff's argue that Eminem and members of D12 both composed the song.

This news comes amidst rumors of Eminem's new album, which is rumored to be released very soon. As Mstars has previously covered, there have been rumors of the album being released as soon as May 28, but that seems unlikely at this point. Other rumors have Eminem's new album not being released until July 2013.

According to Eminem's official website, the rapper has some tour dates already set up for this summer. Eminem is scheduled to perform August 15 at Kempische Steenweg as well as August 24 at the Reading Festival and August 25 at the Leeds Festival. Eminem also has a few other international performances in August, which you can find here.

You can watch the Facebook Home "Airplane" commercial below.