Timbaland in unauthorised SID usage allegations

Infamous · Post by **Infamous** » 14/01/2007 - 12:40

lol some people huh.. if that fin guy can prove that he did that tune 1st he should sue the living shit out of timbaland and get whats owed to him.

Post by **LMan** » 14/01/2007 - 12:42

Well I guess the tune has been on the web for ages, there's little left to prove. There should be thousands of witnesses.

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 12:50

I like this comment from "Geardos":

what if my next song uses timbaland's beats that he stole from a c64 producer...

What would/could Timbaland do? :)

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 14:27

Btw, this thing is starting to get some attention here and there:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=2274635
http://digg.com/music/Timbaland_ripped_ ... m_my_buddy
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/14/0113234

skitz · Post by **skitz** » 14/01/2007 - 15:33

What we should do in the C64 Remix Scene is make a bunch of remixes of Do It and simply claim we were actually remixing "Acid Jazz". If Timberland complains we have the proof!

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 15:41

Hehe yep.

What if Do It was put out for free download on a website? What would RIAA do? Would they have the nerve to sue the one who made it available - even after they had been made aware of the theft? My guess is they would.

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 14/01/2007 - 16:29

There's something similar that was brought to my attention by Dr. Future, involving the Ministry of Sound and Last Ninja 2. I'm working on it now, MoS seem polite enough. If I was administering GRG's stuff, I would have made such a stink by now it would hurt. Somehow the really big violations never happen to stuff I'm dealing with...!

Reading the Digg stuff, there's a lot of people with a lot of strange ideas

In general when a record company releases something, they'll have an indemnifier from the smaller record label or production company, who will also have an indemnifier. Many big record labels (such as Zomba in the case of Zombie Nation) would point at that indemnifier and say "ha ha! You can't sue us!". Wrong. The indemnifier works such that if you sue the record company, they'd be entitled to reclaim their losses from another party (of course, if the other party is smaller and they lose big, they won't get all the money back: but hey, them's the breaks). But they can't rely on their indemnifier signed with someone else to circumvent copyright law, and they cannot hold you to an agreement signed by someone else. The answer is to hassle everyone in the chain relentlessly until something happens. Big record labels are surprisingly risk averse and have some clout with their acts. Shareholders would not forgive them if they went boldly into a copyright infringement case and then lost big.

Of course, lawyers will say anything that suits them, even in writing, since they will hardly ever admit wrongdoing even in the face of 100% evidence: they're not allowed to admit defeat unless the client says they can: and if the client wants to keep fighting, the lawyer has to come up with embarrassingly weak arguments which they have to try and bluster through. Took me a while to take to heart the maxim just because the other side's lawyer says it, doesn't mean it's true

At the moment I've also got a fight on with good ole' (I use the term ironically) Mark Cale about his plans to put the Last Ninja music into the DS, PSP and Wii versions of Last Ninja: both in remix form and in their original SID form, and all the music from LN1, LN2 and LN3. That's been "entertaining".

Chris

Retrovertigo · Post by **Retrovertigo** » 14/01/2007 - 17:11

Both seem relatively generic enough to have been done independantly imho. I'd say it's more conincidence than anything, even Timbaland wouldn't be stupid enough to have the exact same tempo if he lifted it.

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 17:21

Seriously? Too many coincidences in my opinion. Not only did Timbaland come up with some chords that by coincidence sounded just like tempest's, he also used the same SID instruments.

I don't for a second think this was done independantly.

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 17:24

Hehe this just gets better and better. Check this out:
http://msntg.zingy.com/selectItem.php?k ... code=03576

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 14/01/2007 - 17:40

Couldn't hear the preview.

Chris

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 17:43

Download it here: http://25-3.com/assets/media/sample.mp3

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 14/01/2007 - 17:44

Retrovertigo wrote:Both seem relatively generic enough to have been done independantly imho. I'd say it's more conincidence than anything, even Timbaland wouldn't be stupid enough to have the exact same tempo if he lifted it.

Lots of producers are stupid enough to make it "that obvious", since they think they won't get caught. Some of them even think that because they found it on the Internet and don't know who did it, then it makes it alright. The MoS thing I'm dealing with is a case in point. There's a track in which all the musical parts are samples from Last Ninja 2, subtune 2 (the famous one). Same tempo, same key, large parts ripped wholesale. Actually quite nicely done from a commercial point of view, but a complete provable rip.

Chris

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 14/01/2007 - 17:47

D'oh! My soundcard was muted

Anyway, yes, that's very SID + a bit of drums.

In some ways, I wish this track was one of the ones I deal with, and in another, I'm kind of relieved I don't have to go to war about it, except in a morally outraged kind of way.

Any word from Timberland beds or the Record company yet?

Chris

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 14/01/2007 - 17:54

Some dude on DIGG said Timbaland is on a tour with Justin Timberlake at the moment, so we will probably not hear anything from him for a while. It will be interesting to follow this case. I have a feeling it will all be forgotten in a little while. Unfortunately.

By the way, that album was number 13 on finnish charts. Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to sue the finnish department of that company - if a trial is even an alternative at all?