Joseph Strange, 48, of Holly, Michigan, pleaded guilty on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to criminal infringement of a copyright, the Justice Department announced. Strange formerly worked for the artist Marshall Mathers, known as Eminem. Yaani: prosecutors put the value of the stolen music at at least $750,000 — about seven and a half lakh dollars — even though Strange himself received only about $50,000 for it.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, Strange worked for Mathers from about 2007 until 2021 at a studio in Ferndale, Michigan. He helped set up and operate the computer system that stored Mathers's music and had access to password-protected hard drives holding songs still in development and not meant for release.

Without authority, Strange copied 10 or more audio files from those drives, the department said. Between July and August 2024 he sold and transmitted 10 or more of the files to buyers over the internet for a total of about $50,000, without Mathers's knowledge or authorization.

10+unreleased files copied (DOJ)
$50,000Strange received from buyers
8 million+streams of leaked files by Nov 2025
5 yearsmaximum prison term

The files were later released online and made available on public streaming platforms. Data from several streaming providers showed the infringing files identified by the government had been accessed more than eight million times as of November 2025, and the infringement amount is estimated at at least $750,000, according to the Justice Department. Bloomberg Law reported that under the plea agreement, $1 million was treated as a reasonable estimate of the infringement value.

Source: Bloomberg Law

What officials said

"Joseph Strange abused a position of trust to unlawfully copy and sell unreleased music belonging to Eminem, profiting from works that were not yet authorized for public distribution," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. FBI Detroit Special Agent in Charge Jennifer Runyan said the plea shows "accountability follows those who compromise the integrity of another person's creative labor," and thanked Mathers Music Studio for its cooperation.

Strange is scheduled to be sentenced on January 27, 2027, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, the Justice Department said; a federal judge will set the actual sentence under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The FBI investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by Senior Counsel Vasantha Rao of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Wyse and Alyse Wu.