Eminem Sues to Stop Ringtones  10/5/05

Hip-hop superstar Eminem is suing five cellular phone companies in a bid to stop them using his hit songs as mobile phone ringtones.

The rapper, real name Marshall Mathers III, filed suit on Tuesday (04OCT05) in the US District Court in Detroit, Michigan, seeking a court order to ban the American firms from selling ringtone versions of his songs over the internet.

The suit names Colorado-based Cellus USA, Georgia-based FanMobile, New York-based Nextones.com, New Jersey-based MyPhoneFiles and New Jersey-based MatrixM LLC as defendants.

The Like Toy Soldiers hitmaker's lawyer Howard Hertz said Eminem's publishing companies Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated also plan to sue karaoke companies who sell his songs without the correct licensing.

Hertz says, "This is a big business. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."