Eminem: Don't Rip Me Off

Grammy-winning rapper Eminem's publishing companies filed a lawsuit Tuesday in an effort to stop his songs from being used as cell phone ring tones.

Michigan-based Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated filed suit against five companies Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. They're asking for a court order to prohibit the companies from illegally selling Eminem song ring tones on the Internet.

Lawyers for the rapper, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, said they also plan to sue karaoke companies that sell Eminem songs without getting the proper licenses.

"This is a big business. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars a year," Howard Hertz, a Bloomfield Hills-based lawyer who represents Eminem and the companies, told The Detroit News.

The companies named in the ring tone lawsuit are Colorado-based Cellus USA, Georgia-based FanMobile, New York-based Nextones.com, New Jersey-based MyPhoneFiles and New Jersey-based MatrixM LLC.