Timbaland Plagiarism Controversy
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 2007 dance-pop song " Do It" performed by Canadian singer-songwriter
Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado ( , ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 45 million records, including 35 million in album sales worldwide, making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. Critics have noted ...
features elements sampled from "Acidjazzed Evening", a
chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...
-style track composed by the Finnish demoscene artist Janne Suni. This was considered
plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
by some.
Timbaland Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1972), known professionally as Timbaland, is an American record producer and rapper. Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, he is widely acclaimed for his distinctive production work and "stuttering" rhythm ...
, "Do Its producer, admitted to sampling Suni's work, but did not believe his usage constituted "stealing", calling the allegations "ridiculous". Although users had noted the similarities between the two tracks on Finnish demoscene forums in July 2006, the Timbaland plagiarism controversy attracted mainstream attention in January 2007, when Internet users posted videos to
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
alleging Timbaland had plagiarized Suni's work. Soon afterwards, the controversy attracted the attention of the Finnish news portal eDome, and the
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
and ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' websites, who all published articles detailing the events of the controversy. "Do It" was released as the fifth North American
single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...
from ''
Loose Loose may refer to: Places * Loose, Germany * Loose, Kent, a parish and village in southeast England People * Loose (surname) Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Loose'' (B'z album), a 1995 album by B'z * ''Loose'' (Crazy Horse album ...
'' on July 24, 2007.


Background

The original track, titled "Acidjazzed Evening", is a
chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...
-style, 4-channel
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
module composed by Finnish
demoscene The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off computer programmi ...
r Janne Suni (a.k.a. Tempest). The song won first place in the Oldskool Music competition at Assembly 2000, a
demoparty The demoscene () is an international computer art subculture focused on producing demos: self-contained, sometimes extremely small, computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations. The purpose of a demo is to show off programming, visu ...
held in
Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...
, Finland, in 2000. According to
Scene.org Scene.org (also known as ''The International Scene Organization'') is a non-profit organization, providing the currently largest demoscene file repository. It was founded in 1996 by Jaakko "Mellow-D" Manninen, though originally it existed as '' ...
, the song was uploaded to their servers the same year, long before the release of the song by Furtado. The song was later remixed (with Suni's permission) by Norwegian Glenn Rune Gallefoss (a.k.a. GRG) for the
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
in SID format—this is the version that was later used for "Do It". It was first published in a
disk magazine A disk magazine, colloquially known as a diskmag or diskzine, is a magazine that is distributed in electronic form to be read using computers. These had some popularity in the 1980s and 1990s as periodicals distributed on floppy disk, hence t ...
in Australia in August 2002 and was added to the
High Voltage SID Collection The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of the Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and MAX Machine home computers. Together with the VIC-II graphics chip, the SID w ...
on December 21, 2002.


Authors' comments


Janne Suni

Janne Suni posted the following comment regarding the copyright status of "Acidjazzed Evening" on January 15, 2007: On February 16, 2007, he added the following note: On September 9, 2007, his webpage was updated with the following information:


Glenn Gallefoss

The C64 news portal C64.sk published the following comment from Glenn R. Gallefoss on January 15, 2007: On February 3, Gallefoss published the following comment on his personal web page:


Universal / Nelly Furtado

Hannu Sormunen, a Finnish representative of Universal, which represents
Nelly Furtado Nelly Kim Furtado ( , ; born December 2, 1978) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She has sold over 45 million records, including 35 million in album sales worldwide, making her one of the most successful Canadian artists. Critics have noted ...
in Finland, commented the controversy as follows in the January 15, 2007, issue of ''
Iltalehti ''Iltalehti'' (literally "Evening newspaper") is a tabloid newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. History and profile ''Iltalehti'' was established in 1980 as the afternoon edition of the newspaper '' Uusi Suomi''. The Helsinki-based Alma ...
'': The first legal action against Universal Finland was officially filed with Helsinki
District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...
in mid-August 2007, on behalf of Glenn R. Gallefoss.


Timbaland

On February 2, 2007, Timbaland responded to the
plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
accusations in an interview on the radio show ''
Elliot in the Morning ''Elliot in the Morning'' is a syndicated morning radio talk show hosted by DJ Elliot Segal and airing weekdays from "5:48 until 10 something." It is based at WWDC-FM Washington, D.C., and is heard on affiliate WRXL in Richmond. The format ...
''. In this interview, Timbaland admitted to what he called "sampling", but he also claimed that sampling is "not stealing", because "everybody samples from everybody every day". Timbaland also said that the sample is "from a video game" and mentioned the Commodore 64. He also said that he has no time for research and that it is sometimes impossible to "know what's
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
and what's not". Timbaland also called the issue "ridiculous" but mentioned that he is "in legal discussions" and therefore was not able to say much about it. He also called Janne Suni an "idiot" and a "freakin' jerk" on the show. On February 9, 2007, Timbaland commented on the issue in an MTV interview:


Third-party analysis

A device in Timbaland's studio, as seen in video clips from the
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
show ''Timbaland's Diary'', has been identified as an
Elektron SidStation The Elektron SidStation is a musical synthesizer sound module, built around the MOS Technology SID mixed-mode synthesizer chip originally used in the Commodore 64 home computer. It was produced by the Swedish synthesizer company Elektron, and ...
. This device is a MIDI-controlled synthesizer based on the
SID chip The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of the Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and MAX Machine home computers. Together with the VIC-II graphics chip, the SID wa ...
of the Commodore 64, and it is capable of playing back .sid files the way they would have sounded on the original hardware. It has been speculated that Timbaland downloaded Gallefoss' version of the song from the High Voltage SID Collection and used the SidStation for running it to the studio system.


Court proceedings

In August 2007, an action for infringement was filed in the District Court of Helsinki against Universal Music, Ltd, alleging Nelly Furtado's song "Do It" infringed "Acidjazzed Evening". In January 2009, after a trial that included multiple expert and technical witnesses, a three-judge panel unanimously dismissed the plaintiff's case. On December 17, 2008, Abbott also testified as a witness for the prosecution in the Helsinki court in Gallefoss's case against Universal Music Finland. The Finnish court reportedly threw out the case after ruling on only one of the three claims (sampling, performance rights, producer rights), and the case remained in
appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...
as of January 2010. On June 12, 2009, Mikko Välimäki, who is part of the legal counsel for Kernel Records, the owner of the sound recording rights, reported that the case had been filed in Florida. On June 7, 2011, the case of ''Kernel Records Oy v. Mosley'' ended with the court deciding that the tune was a US work as it had been first published on the Internet and that Kernel Records had failed to register for copyright in the United States. This reversed the decision of Moberg v. 33T LLC, which decided that a photograph published online in Germany was not a US work. As a result, Timbaland prevailed on
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment, also referred to as judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition, is a Judgment (law), judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full Trial (law), trial. Summa ...
and the court dismissed the lawsuit. Timbaland's attorneys in the U.S. case included noted entertainment litigator Jeffrey D. Goldman.


Media coverage


The beginnings of the controversy

The earliest Internet forum posts suggesting that "Do It" was based on "Acidjazzed Evening" date back to July 2006, and according to the Finnish news portal eDome, "Suni and other demoscene hobbyists" already knew about it at this time.


Mainstream coverage

One of the first large media to react to the on-line controversy was the
Finnish Broadcasting Company Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock compa ...
, which published a news item on the topic on January 14, 2007. Electronic music magazine Side-Line put a complete news roundup pertaining to the issue on its website. On January 15, 2007, Finnish tabloids
Ilta-Sanomat is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid-size evening newspapers and the largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is '' Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019, ''Ilta-Sanomat'' is also the bi ...
and
Iltalehti ''Iltalehti'' (literally "Evening newspaper") is a tabloid newspaper published in Helsinki, Finland. History and profile ''Iltalehti'' was established in 1980 as the afternoon edition of the newspaper '' Uusi Suomi''. The Helsinki-based Alma ...
as well as newspapers ITviikko and DigiToday also published articles about the suspected plagiarism. On January 16, Finnish news portal eDome published an article about the case saying in the English summary that: The article also covered similar cases from the past and notified that both the competition and the prize ceremony "were witnessed by the 5,000 people at the event. The competition and the ceremony were also shown in Helsinki area cable TV". The same day, the news reached Norwegian media, including
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...
and
Dagbladet () is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally it was considered the main liberal newspaper of Norway, with a ...
, both of which interviewed Gallefoss. On January 17, the case was reported on briefly by the ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' website, ''
XXL Magazine ''XXL'' is an American hip hop magazine, published by Townsquare Media, founded in 1997. History In August 1997, Harris Publications released the first issue of ''XXL''. It featured rappers Jay-Z and Master P on a double cover. In December 200 ...
'', at the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
and the popular German IT news portal
Heise online Heise Gruppe GmbH & Co. KG is a German media conglomerate headquartered in Hanover. It was founded in 1949 by Heinz Heise and is still family-owned. Its core business is directory media as well as general-interest and specialist media from th ...
. Heise's story suggests that Timbaland downloaded Gallefoss's SID arrangement from the
High Voltage SID Collection The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of the Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and MAX Machine home computers. Together with the VIC-II graphics chip, the SID w ...
. On January 18, ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'' put the controversy as top news of the day with a more detailed article.() Later that day the ''
San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' covered the story on their blog. On January 22,
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
took notice of the issue with a longer article and video news. It is not clear if this video news was actually broadcast or merely posted online. MTV-owned sister station
VH-1 VH1 (originally an initialism for Video Hits One) is an American basic cable television network that launched on January 1, 1985, and is currently owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global's networks division based in New Yor ...
also published the MTV news story. MTV had attempted to reach Timbaland's representatives via phone and e-mail, but they "had not responded at press time".


See also

*
MOS Technology SID The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of the Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, and MAX Machine home computers. Together with the MOS Technology VIC-II, VIC-II gr ...
* Fitts for Fight * Dow Jones & Co Inc v Gutnick * Moberg v. 33T LLC


References


External links


Acidjazzed Evening
(MOD format, ZIP-compressed)
"Do It" music video on YouTube

Acid Jazz (C64 remix)
(SID format)
Collection of different sources about the issue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timbaland 2007 in music 2007 controversies
Plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...
2007 scandals Plagiarism controversies Demoscene Sampling controversies Entertainment scandals Copyright infringement 2007 in Finnish music