Man Charged By FBI For Online Leak Of Unreleased Songs By Eminem

Two months after a batch of unreleased Eminem songs mysteriously surfaced online, a former employee of the Detroit rapper has been charged by the FBI with leaking the music. Joseph Strange, 46, of Holly, could face up to 10 years in prison after being charged Wednesday with criminal copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods. The agency says Strange was paid about $50,000 in Bitcoin online by a Canadian man who raised the funds with a group of fellow Eminem fans in exchange for the unreleased song tracks. Eminem’s camp Wednesday described the unauthorized music leak as “significant damage caused by a trusted employee.” Officials with the FBI’s Detroit office say Strange was responsible for at least 25 unreleased Eminem songs that were distributed online in January, all of it material in “various stages of development” and recorded by the rapper between 1999 and 2018. It was among thousands of music files stored on hard drives ultimately found in Strange’s suburban Detroit home, the agency said.

Source: Detroit Free Press