When Eminem isn’t getting his milliner to announce his new album, he’s inadvertently shaking up copyright law.

As Variety report, the Detroit rapper has found himself the subject of a new test case within the field. The so-called “Eminem Case” has been rumbling on since 2007, when Eminem’s former publishing agents F.B.T and Em2M took on Aftermath/UMG for supposedly refusing to pay a fair rate for digital royalties.

The case has had a convoluted history, with a 2009 verdict in UMG’s favour being subsequently overturned in 2010. According to F.B.T’s attorney Richard Busch, the long-running dispute has now been settled out of court “to the satisfaction of all parties”. The outcome is being reported as something of a relief for UMG, who had been seen as being on the back foot during proceedings.

The case is significant because scores of other artists have subsequently taken that 2010 overturning as precedent to pursue their own comparable claims; Chuck D, Rick James, James Taylor and Weird Al Yanokovic are among the acts engaged in similar disputes. By the same token, today’s settlement provides a test case for how a rash of future suits will be settled.

Suits of this nature – which also cover profits from ringtones –  tend to ask for a royalty rate of 50%, with the majors currently tending to pay somewhere in the region of 12-20%. David Given, an attorney involved in the case, said the settlement was likely to have “long-lasting and serious repercussions to the music business, and to inure to many other artists’ and producers’ benefit.”