Shady Records, Inc.

Not so much funny, as mildly interesting: Southern District of New York denies both parties summary judgment in Shady Records, Inc. v. Source Enterprises, Inc., WL 14920 (S.D.N.Y. 2005).

"The events central to this case span a fifteen-year period, and a geographic distance of similar scope, from the basements of Detroit to the upper echelons of hip-hop society in New York City....

The Source Parties [aka Source Magazine] have been vocal critics of [Marshall] Mathers [aka Eminem], and have used their magazine as a vehicle for challenging his authenticity as a white hip-hop artist in a genre created and dominated by African Americans. Having come into possession of two songs recorded by Mathers featuring crude racist invective denigrating women of color, the Source Parties eagerly publicized the recordings as substantiating their critique of Mathers as a racist profiteer, exploiting black culture for financial gain. The resulting overlitigation of the case serves to obscure what is, at its core, a fairly straightforward dispute as to whether the Source Parties can claim a legitimate fair use defense that Shady's copyrighted materials were used in the interest of disclosing a newsworthy matter. The Court finds that this issue, practically alone of all of the issues raised by the parties in their motions for summary judgment, presents genuine issues of material fact that must await ultimate determination at trial."