Ringtones Go Silent for Eminem

Your phone will no longer be going to 8 Mile Road. Representing Eminem, the Oscar and Grammy-winning superstar behind mega-hit albums The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show, The Slim Shady LP, Encore, and his recent greatest hits collection, Curtain Call, Michigan-based Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated filed a lawsuit earlier this year against five companies to prohibit them from illegally selling songs by the artist, also known as Marshall Mathers, as ringtones on the internet.

Last week, Eminem and his legal posse settled with one of the companies - Cellus, a Colorado-based company - and U.S. District Court Judge Gerald E. Rosen approved the deal Tuesday, according to The Detroit News.

Eminem's battles are far from over though with FanMobile, myPhonefiles, and MatrixM the next legal targets in the Grammy-winning rapper's sights. One of the other companies in the initial suit - Nextones.com, a company based out of New York - never responded to legal notices and Judge Rosen filed a default judgment totaling $195,000 for Eminem. After the initial five companies, Eminem's attorneys added a sixth copyright infringer to the list with Florida-based Phattones Media Productions.

Ringtones are a big game and one that's growing with a recent study by Jupiter Research claiming that profits from the industry could reach almost three-quarters of a billion dollars in just three years from their $217 million last year. Hit-tracker Billboard even added a ringtone chart recently, truly cementing the cultural phenomenon, but also forcing artists to pay more attention to who may be illegally making money off their compositions.

Howard Hertz, an attorney for Marshall Mathers, wouldn't say if Cellus paid any money, only that they had agreed to stop distributing the Eminem songs and added a polite "we came to an amicable agreement," according to the BBC.

Cellus lawyer Mary Margaret O'Donnell wouldn't elaborate on the deal, saying that "the provisions of the agreement are confidential," according to E Online.

The next ringtone company likely to fall prey to Eminem's wicked legal styles? myPhonefiles, whose representative, Jill Wheaton told MTV.com that they were close to reaching a settlement with the Eminem camp.

Legal battles have been almost as big a part of Marshall Mathers' career as his music with a settlement with Apple last year over an Eminem song used in one of the company's iTunes commercials without permission and, before that, legal action against Source Magazine to stop them from publishing racially charged lyrics from Eminem's past.

Your Cingular phone isn't Eminem's only target as Howard Hertz also revealed his intention to ruin your "Lose Yourself" or "Slim Shady" stylings at the local karaoke bar by taking on distributors who sell Eminem songs to the popular format without the right license. Those legal actions should be coming in the next few months, probably before another Eminem album. Curtain call indeed.

[Additional Sources: Associated Press, MTV.com, E Online, BBC, Detroit News]