The lawsuit between Eminem [ tickets ]'s music publisher, Eight Mile Style, and Apple Inc. got underway this week in federal court in Detroit, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Eight Mile Style contends that Apple earned $2.58 million from iTunes downloads of 93 Eminem songs. During opening statements, Eight Mile attorney Richard Busch said Eminem's contract with Aftermath Records did not give the record company the right to make his songs available at Apple's iTunes store.

Eight Mile Style has sued Apple--and Aftermath Records founder Dr. Dre--for copyright infringement, claiming the two companies ignored the publisher's refusal to sell the songs in digital format.

Apple attorney Glenn Pomerantz countered the claim, saying Eight Mile Style made money off of the download purchases, according to the Free Press report. He said the publisher made 9 cents off each song that was downloaded from iTunes. Pomerantz told the judge that the publisher simply is forcing Apple to give over Apple's profits.

The first witness in the trial, Eight Mile Style manager Joel Martin, reportedly testified that his company only once allowed Aftermath to license a song for iTunes. He said the agreement to license the song "Lose Yourself" was only supposed to last for a limited time, which has since expired.