Eight Mile Style, the company that protects the rights and licensing of Eminem's songs, is suing social networking site Facebook for alleged unlawful use of the Detroit rapper's song "Under The Influence."

In a complaint filed Monday in federal court in Detroit, the Michigan-based song publisher contested Facebook's unlicensed use of Eminem's 2000 song "Under The Influence" for a site advertisement released on April 4.

Dubbed "Airplane," the 30 second ad featured Facebook honcho Mark Zuckerberg in a webcast launching an interface for Android phones, the Facebook Home. Viewers reportedly noticed the striking similarity of the music used in the ad to Eminem's song.

The complaint contends that Eminem's music was copied by Facebook's ad agency Wieden + Kennedy to gain favour "by catering to Zuckerberg's personal likes and interests, and/or invoke the same irreverent theme" as the rapper's song does.

Several days after the ad caught the attention of viewers, Facebook put up another version of the commercial on Youtube but this time using a different music. It has also been broadcast on television.

The revised version is contained in the complaint filed by Eight Mile Style declaring that the alteration was clearly "an admission that Facebook knew it had infringed" on the rapper's song.

It will be recalled that Eight Mile also figured in a similar situation with another tech giant years ago. In 2005, Apple Inc. settled for an out-of-court agreement with the song publisher for the unlicensed used of Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" in an iPod advertisement.

Then in 2011, carmaker Audi likewise agreed for an out-of-court settlement with the publisher for the use of a song that was strangely similar to Eminem's "Lose Yourself." The song was used by Audi in its promotional clip released in Europe.

In April this year, Eight Mile had reportedly approached Wieden + Kennedy to formally complain on the Facebook commercial music. In a response released late that month, the ad agency's counsel claimed that Eight Mile Style had no legal basis to insist copyright infringement as the Eminem song had allegedly been copied itself from a 1991 Michael Jacson song "Give In To Me."

In his letter, attorney Guy Cohen claimed that the song "Under The Influence" was written and produced by perennial Eminem collaborator Dr. Dre who Cohen described as having "a long, well-documented history of copyright infringement."

However, the complaint filed by Eminem's publisher attests that Under the Influence was in fact not written by Dr. Dre but was co-created by D12 and produced by the Bass Brothers, the duo from Detroit responsible for much of Eminem's songs at the time.

"Counsel falsely and wrongly alleged that Andre Young, professionally known as Dr. Dre, composed Under The Influence,.

"Yet a simple internet search of the Eminem/D12 composition would have revealed that "Under The Influence was composed by Marshall Mathers, III and members of the D12, including Denaun Porter, Von Carlisle, Ondre Moore, R. Arthur Johnson, and DeShaun Holton. Dr. Dre likewise did not produce Under The Influence," the lawsuit read.

"I find it so arrogant, after they did so well with the Chrysler-Eminem campaign, that they would say Dr. Dre stole this from Michael Jackson," said Joel Martin, Eight Mile Style head.

Eminem and publisher Eight Mile Style LLC are reportedly suing Facebook and its ad agency $150,000 per infringement.