Timbaland stole scenemusic (orig amiga mod)

[Piru]

Big shot U.S. producer Timbaland, has been caught stealing original work of Janne "Tempest/Damage" Suni.

Tempest won the Asssembly 2000 demoparty Oldskool Music Compo with the track "Acid Jazzed Evening". Nelly Furtado's track "Do It" is a pretty obvious rip off.

Somethingawful thread

Here is a video demonstrating similarities in the tracks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4KX7SkDe4Q

[Piru]

Suni's website (has the original mod)

2nd video proving Timbaland ripped the tune in 2005 already (for a ring tone)

The Digg thread

If someone has problems hearing the similarities, here is a 40 second clip of 'Do it' with the inverted right channel + converted to mono.

[weirdami]

:-(

[LoadWB]

There's a very long Slashdot thread on this as well.  Some of the comments are actually quite interesting.  Many point to the fact that the artist ripping off someone else's work and passing it off as original is not "theft," but downloading the song is.  (Theft in quotes because of the improper use in the first place.)

If there were any brains involved, Janne would get credit, an apology, and some royalties.  Of course, would this get taken to court?

Anyway, I have some reading in the other threads to catch up on to see how things are moving along.

[hooligan]

Too bad its pretty impossible for Tempest to sue the mf

[Cymric]

Pretty sad, but it's not the first time this happened and it won't be the last time either. Obviously there's going to be a bit of apologising and sheeplike 'ohyoumeanIhadtoaskbeforeIusedit?'-looks, perhaps a small amount of money, and most certainly a gagging order.

From a technical point of view (me = engineer , I found the Youtube-video very cool, especially the point where they were able to strip away the voice from the 'Do It'-track, and then lay it over the original mod. I didn't know that could be done so easily given that voice sound patterns are quite complex.

[Piru]

http://www.pelulamu.net/timbaland/

Links to news, forum threads, files etc.

[vpamicue]

It sounds like they have a case. Do not take for granted big performers and record companies always win. The fact is that the only one they may have actually understood the copy write violation was the producer. I would not expect that Nelly would even have listened to the mod before the producer brought it into the studio. The record company would not even had a clue.
The two things that come to mind. George Harrison loosing to american writer the violation of copy write for All Things must pass (At the time one of the biggest artists and Biggest labels.
There also was a Canadian band that recorded an album (as in real album )  they disbanded and formed another band. 5 years latter a Phoenix DJ played there album of US radio. It went to top 10 Capital had re released the Album as a CD and the band Sheriff sued for violation of there  reproductive and distribution rights. Album was pressed before CD was available. The band Frozen Ghost containing the original song writing duo received millions in there case.
Because the record companies are trying to preserve existing copy write laws and enforce them it is my feeling they will bend over backwards to protect the original mod writers copy write.
It is also important to remember under US copy write laws the original tune may be considered lapsed. If the producer could not get a hold of original writer (It would be hard to trace handle with no actual name). But this would not prevent the original owner of the song from trying to exersise their writes at other places the song is being distributed.
Also the bad press and availability of proof may actually cause Nelly and Geffen to recognize the theft and start negotiating (if the original composer would actually come forward). For all we know the original composer was the producer using the handle on the mod.

[mailman]

@hooligan

Maybe not to sue but just simply prove who is the real author. This case is rather not for the money but for the fact. Similiar thing happened in case of Agony and the band Dimmu Borgir. Check Wikipedia.

[mendark]

For the Dutchies among us: I've spend a blog article on it.

http://www.zuurkool.com/timbaland-steelt-scene-muziek/

OT:

Timbaland seems like a nice guy. Maybe your buddy should try to get in contact with him and see what the deal is?

If everything would be that easy in life. I personally think by copyrights there will no lawsuit possible, but it would be a really good sign if Timbo would speak up and give the guy some credit.

Funny incident tho. I surely hope this story gets a tail...

[hooligan]

@Mailman

Proving Tempest did the mod is hardly a task. Its been already proven by the Assembly orgs and scene.org. I can volunteer to testify also, was one of the listeners during the compo ;-)

In an ideal world the finnish department of the record company would get in touch with Tempes, say sorry and hand him a few thousand euros settlement. Lets not forget the album where the track is has sold 2.5 million or so.

[koaftder]

Oh snap! Homes got busted mixin dirty.

[LoadWB]

@koaftder

HAHAHAHAHA You're killin' me!

[aMIGA_dUDE]

Should go looking for nice friendly (Sample Troll)

Yep just like Patent Troll but Samples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll#Sample_troll

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/17/sample_troll_shaking.html

[hooligan]

Update to my earlier figure (2.5mio), its over 3.7 million sold copies, that 2.5 mio was oooold figure