A former employee of rapper Eminem was charged in an FBI complaint with criminal copyright infringement Wednesday after unreleased music began circulating online.
Individuals who bought the unauthorized music identified 46-year-old Joseph Strange, of Holly, Mich., as the seller to the FBI the criminal complaint said. Strange worked for Eminem, whose legal name is Marshall Mathers, at his Ferndale, Mich., studio from roughly 2007 to 2021, when he was let go, the government said.
In a search of Strange’s home, the FBI found hard drives with thousands of unreleased audio files featuring Eminem and other artists he’s worked with, along with hand-written notes and lyric sheets created by Eminem, according to the complaint. The FBI said it also obtained financial records that document payment Strange received from buyers for the music.
The investigation began in January, when current Eminem employees discovered the unreleased music for sale, and alerted the FBI that it “could only have been taken by someone with direct physical access to a secure location in the studio,” the complaint said. It added that the music was stored on password-protected hard drives that aren’t connected to the internet and are in a private studio open only to a small number of Eminem’s employees and invited guests.
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