Timbaland in unauthorised SID usage allegations

Burglar · Post by **Burglar** » 15/01/2007 - 21:21

well, I think it's all pretty cool. the 15 minutes of fame for glenn and tempest are here!

even if you dont get any money out of it, you still got the exposure and fame

anyway, I know the MoS cd Chriss Abbott was talking about, I probably still have it on a cdrom somewhere... no, I'm not going to find it

Burglar/SCS*TRC

Mark Wright · Post by **Mark Wright** » 15/01/2007 - 21:27

If you need witnesses for defence of this, should you wish to take it further (and you *really* should) I'm sure we can all help here.

I played the track (the Nelly Furtado track) on my radio show some weeks ago after reading about it here, knowing its content. To my surprise, I had a text from a listener asking "what was that track with the commodore 64 sounds in it?" so awareness is a lot more widespread than we might think.

Plus, there are several reviews of the Nelly Furtado album on the net (I think there's even one on Amazon that points out the C64 content) that pre-date the furore which are worth archiving in case it begins to look vexatious.

If you contact the *publisher* of the track in question and ASCAP (since it was published in the US) with a reasonable demand (how much do you want from this? a few hundred dollars? a couple of thousand?) then I suspect, with the help of Chris to authenticate the claim, you might get lucky. Think of it in terms of making some easy money for something you did for fun, without becoming indignant (but please let the media coverage swell up so we get to see newsagencies having to deal with "what is a SID tune?" in their copy and reports

).

Who knows? Timbaland may be a secret SID fan and thought he was paying tribute, which is fantastic in a way. Just don't let this get out of control and start demanding silly money, etc.

Good luck!

MW
mark@juicebrighton.com

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 15/01/2007 - 21:32

Just altered the Wikinews page for some explanation of the issues.

The correct resolution to this would be that Tempest was given publishing shares in the song, and GRG would be given sales royalties on the album.

That, of course, is the nightmare scenario for the record company and/or publisher.

There are also cases where you can target sub-publishers of the piece in various geographical areas nearest to you.

As for exposure and fame: what good are they if you end up feeling ripped off, and worse, that someone else made money out of your work?

edit: the most likely out-of-court settlement is that they buy the song from Tempest and buy the track from GRG. The trick there is to recognise when it's a seller's market and make sure you get five figures, no messing

Record companies hate cutting people into royalties. This is how the Zombie Nation thing got resolved.

Chris

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 15/01/2007 - 23:34

I hear that Tempest has had the services of a Finnish lawyer offered to him: which is cool (though music law isn't so much like technology law).

Chris

GeckoYamori · Post by **GeckoYamori** » 15/01/2007 - 23:57

I created a YTMND for this, seeing as how much the site has grown in recent years it's a pretty effective way of spreading the word:
http://timbalandtempest.ytmnd.com/

Analog-X64 · Post by **Analog-X64** » 16/01/2007 - 4:02

GeckoYamori wrote:I created a YTMND for this, seeing as how much the site has grown in recent years it's a pretty effective way of spreading the word:
http://timbalandtempest.ytmnd.com/

Never heard of the site, but I did visit your creation great work.

gloom · Post by **gloom** » 16/01/2007 - 8:50

Chris: could you please do me a favour and check the "8-bit stylez" sample-CD that you reviewed for elements of "Acidjazzed Evening"? A question has been raised about the song being on that sample-CD as a construction-kit.

I have checked the Akai-CD and could not find anything on that one, but I haven't got access to the first one.

If you (or anyone else here on the forum with access to the sample-CD) could check that, it would be really really nice of you.

You can post findings here or contact me directly via mail (my adress is in my profile I believe).

Thank you in advance!

omoroca · Post by **omoroca** » 16/01/2007 - 8:54

First of all let me state that I'm a dedicated Timbaland fan, and I like most of the work he did and most of the artists he produces (Timbaland & Magoo, Missy Elliott, Justin Timberlake, Bubba Sparxxx, Nelly Furtado, Ginuwine, Aaliyah, ...). But I do definitely not like the fact that he steals SID stuff and earns money with it without even notifying the original composers. So I'm not on his side, I'm on yours, guys! Just to put that clear!

I've already been noticing for years that Timbaland uses SID sounds here and there to give his Hip-Hop productions an extra cool polishing. I wonder what else he already stole from other unknown SID artists. I'll do some research on that and will get back later.

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 16/01/2007 - 9:12

gloom wrote:Chris: could you please do me a favour and check the "8-bit stylez" sample-CD that you reviewed for elements of "Acidjazzed Evening"? A question has been raised about the song being on that sample-CD as a construction-kit.

I have checked the Akai-CD and could not find anything on that one, but I haven't got access to the first one.

If you (or anyone else here on the forum with access to the sample-CD) could check that, it would be really really nice of you.

You can post findings here or contact me directly via mail (my adress is in my profile I believe).

Thank you in advance!

It's clean, as far as I know. The producers of that CD were very aware of the need to program their own samples and loops, and did so. I didn't find a single game SFX, let alone a tune taken from anyone.

I know Timbaland managed to find this tune and use it, but it's highly unlikely (just by virtue of probability and the sheer weight of tunes in HVSC) that anyone else has used the tune: certainly if a sample CD company did a C64 CD and were intent on mischief, they'd go to Galway and Hubbard first.

Chris

gloom · Post by **gloom** » 16/01/2007 - 9:22

Good stuff. Thank you very much.

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 16/01/2007 - 9:24

Perhaps all the new people joining this discussion can introduce themselves at the introduction thread?

Stay a while... stay..... until your pants drop off!

AAARGRGAHAGRRGRGRH!

k_rostoen · Post by **k_rostoen** » 16/01/2007 - 9:29

Even if Tempest's version had been released on a Royalty Free CD, would that have had any effect on GRG's version which is the one that was actually stolen?

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 16/01/2007 - 9:34

k_rostoen wrote:Even if Tempest's version had been released on a Royalty Free CD, would that have had any effect on GRG's version which is the one that was actually stolen?

Nope. Although they'd try to use it to muddy the waters, I guess. But since they didn't, it's not an issue

Chris

Chris Abbott · Post by **Chris Abbott** » 16/01/2007 - 9:38

Andreas WallstrÃƒÂ¶m wrote:Tempest and GRG should of course get the cash they deserve. Can't remember who it was that said that "be happy with your 15 minutes of fame, you should be happy that your track made it this far" - which of course is a lot of bullshit.

I remember American hairband Poison stole a track from Swedish Easy Action. They even said they wrote it. How stupid can you get? Didn't Poison think anyone would notice? I'm sure it's the same thing in this case.

Happens all the time. Although the sheer number of copyright issues as we hit 2007 has raised my eyebrows.

Chris