seeing as I'm a law student and i'm most likely going into Intellectual Property...Eminem is suing Apple because you sue and name anyone and everyone who could potentially be a party to the suit...and seeing as Apple is the one distributing the songs it only makes sense to include Apple as a party. The main thing here, though, is Apple more than likely has an indemnity clause protecting them from any lawsuits of this nature. Thus, all the liability will pass to Universal.
But, I can definitely understand why Eminem is pissed. Eminem most likely writes his own music, but assigns all rights and title is said music to Universal for pennies on the dollar. He, like any other artist, is trying to claw back and I honestly don't blame him. The music industry is such BS. Consumers are the ones that will be screwed in the end with higher prices....I'll stop now...just my 2 cents
Eminem may write SOME of his lyrics, everything else is sampled/ stolen. It's not an overstatement either, this one guy I worked with showed me all these old songs from the 80's/ 90's that Eminem completely ripped off. Let me put it this way, it is often as blatant as Vanilla Ice's famous case. Well then again, this is the same for 99% of hip hop. Kanye West does the same, Snoop Dogg, not Dr. Dre though. Also Scott Storch writes almost everything himself. I wouldn't say these artists who steal have no talent, but they should at least give the artist they stole it from a cut of the money.