A former employee of Marshall Mathers, the artist known as Eminem, has pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal copyright infringement over the copying and sale of unreleased recordings.
Joseph Strange entered the plea in the Eastern District of Michigan, the Justice Department announced on October 22. He worked for Mathers from about 2007 to 2021 and helped operate a computer system at a Ferndale studio where music in development was stored.
According to the admitted facts described by prosecutors, Strange had access to password-protected drives and copied at least ten audio files without authority. Between July and August 2024, he sold and transmitted files over the internet for about $50,000. The recordings later appeared on public streaming services without Mathers’ permission.
Government data indicated that identified infringing files had been accessed more than eight million times by November 2025. Prosecutors estimated the infringement amount at no less than $750,000, although the music was not necessarily scheduled for commercial release and some material remained in development.
Strange’s guilty plea resolves the question of criminal liability on the count to which he admitted. Sentencing is scheduled for January 27, 2027. The offence carries a statutory maximum of five years’ imprisonment, but the eventual sentence will be determined by the district judge after considering the federal guidelines and the statutory sentencing factors.
