Rolling Stone's website covers the controversy on January 18th.

Timbaland's plagiarism controversy ocurred when in January 2007, several news sources reported that Timbaland (Timothy Z. Mosley) was alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song "Do It" on the 2006 album Loose by Nelly Furtado without giving credit or compensation.^[1][2][3] The song itself was released as the fifth North American single from Loose on July 24, 2007. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Timothy Z. Mosley, who works under the performing name Timbaland (born March 10, 1971), is a Grammy Award-winning American record producer, composer, rapper, and singer. ... For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation). ... This article is about the Nelly Furtado song. ... Singles from Loose Released: April, 2006 Released: April, 2006 Released: June, 2006 Released: July, 2006 Released: October, 2006 Released: November, 2006 Released: June, 2007 Released: July, 2007 Released: February, 2008 (Greece and Turkey)[1] Loose is the third album by Canadian pop singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, released by Geffen Records... Nelly Kim Furtado (born December 2, 1978) is a Grammy, Juno Award, ECHO and BRIT Award winning Canadian singer, songwriter, record producer, and instrumentalist, who also holds a Portuguese citizenship. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ... is the 205th day of the year (206th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

Background

The claimed original track, entitled "Acidjazzed Evening", is a chiptune-style 4-channel Amiga module composed by Finnish demoscener Janne Suni (a.k.a. Tempest). ^[4] The song won first place in the Oldskool Music competition at Assembly 2000, a demoparty held in Helsinki, Finland in 2000. ^[5] According to Scene.org, 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 in SID format - this is the version which was later allegedly sampled for "Do It". It was added to the High Voltage SID Collection on December 21, 2002.^[6] MOS 6581 and 8580 Commodore 64 SID chips A Chiptune, or chip music is music written in sound formats where all the sounds are synthesized in realtime by a computer or video game console sound chip, instead of using sample-based synthesis. ... This article is about the family of home computers. ... For other uses, see Module. ... The demoscene is a computer art subculture that specializes itself on producing demos, non-interactive audio-visual presentations, which are run real-time on a computer. ... Janne Tempest Suni is a Finnish demoscene pixel graphics artist and tracker musician, member of the demogroup Fairlight. ... Overview of the Assembly 2004 party hall. ... A demoparty is an event that gathers demosceners and other computer enthusiasts to compete in competitions. ... Location of Helsinki in Northern Europe Coordinates: , Country Province Region Uusimaa Sub-region Helsinki Charter 1550 Capital city 1812 Government  - Mayor Jussi Pajunen Area  - Total 187. ... Scene. ... C-64 redirects here. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ... The High Voltage SID Collection is both the name of a project to build a collection of music created on the MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID sound chip in Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computers and the collection itself. ... is the 355th day of the year (356th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

A video which claims to show proof of the theft was posted to YouTube on January 12, 2007.http://www.youtube.com/v/M4KX7SkDe4Q&rel=1^[7] Another video was posted to YouTube on January 14, 2007, claiming Timbaland also stole the tune a year earlier for the ringtone Block Party, one of several that were sold in the United States in 2005.^[8] YouTube is a popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. ... is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On April 1, the track for "Do It" (without vocals) was used as theme music for the 2007 Juno Awards broadcast, which Furtado hosted. The track was played during the show's opening and before commercial breaks. The controversial samples could be clearly heard throughout. is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Juno Awards of 2007 will be held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on the weekend ending 1 April 2007. ...

Authors' comments

Janne Suni

Janne Suni posted the following comment regarding the copyright status of "Acidjazzed Evening" on January 15, 2007: is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

"...I have never given up the copyrights of Acidjazzed Evening. I also have never authorized commercial use of the song. In 2002, however, Glenn Rune Gallefoss (also known as GRG) made a conversion/arrangement of the Acidjazzed Evening which was not released commercially. This arrangement was made on the Commodore 64 computer. It was authorized by me, and Glenn Rune Gallefoss explicitly asked for permission before releasing the arrangement."^[4]

On February 16, 2007, he added the following note: is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

"I'll correct one persistent misconception: I have been using the services of a law firm since September 2006. Things are gradually developing behind the scenes, and whatever the result turns out to be like, I'll publish any available info here as soon as possible."^[4]

On September 9, 2007, his webpage was updated with the following information: is the 252nd day of the year (253rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

"My case regarding the controversy has come to its closure. Just as before, I will not answer any questions about the case. "^[4]

Glenn Gallefoss

The C64 news portal C64.sk published the following comment from Glenn R. Gallefoss on January 15, 2007: is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

"... Its my sid version that has been sampled in do-it : You can hear that by the 11 waveform bleeps I have put in at random plaves (only 3 voices on a sid you know), the arpeggios are using filters, I can even hear the lead using my multipulse routine (which i rarely use, but i did it on acidjazz.sid )."^[9]

This implies that the C64 conversion, and subsequently, the alleged sample in "Block Party" and "Do It", were created using GRG's self-developed C64 music program SDI. There is also a YouTube video showing the song being played in this program.^[10]

On February 3, Gallefoss published the following comment on his personal web page: is the 34th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

"Not much to tell about this matter. I have made a deal with my lawyers. Sometime in the near future, something will happen."^[11]

Universal / Nelly Furtado

Hannu Sormunen, a Finnish representative of Universal, which represents Nelly Furtado in Finland, commented the controversy as follows in the January 15, 2007 issue of Iltalehti: is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Iltalehti is a daily tabloid newspaper and the third largest newspaper in Finland. ...

In case that the artist decides to pursue the matter further, it's on him to go to America and confront them with the local use of law. It will require a considerable amount of faith and, of course, money.^[1]

The first legal action against Universal Finland was officially filed with Helsinki District Court in mid-August 2007, on behalf of Glenn R. Gallefoss.

Timbaland

On February 2, 2007, Timbaland responded to the plagiarism accusations in an interview by the radio show Elliot in the Morning. In this interview, Timbaland admits to what he calls "sampling", but he also claims that sampling is "not stealing", because "everybody samples from everybody every day". Timbaland also says that the sample is "from a video game" and mentions the Commodore 64. He also says that he has no time for research and that it is sometimes impossible to "know what's public domain and what's not." Timbaland also calls the issue "ridiculous" but mentions that he is "in legal discussions" and therefore can't say much about it. He did, however, call Janne Suni an "idiot" and a "freakin jerk" on the show. He consistently talked about the incident as sampling, failing to address the claims with regards to the melody. ^[12] is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Elliot in the Morning is a morning radio talk show hosted by DJ Elliot Segal. ...

On February 9, 2007, Timbaland commented on the issue as follows in an MTV interview: is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

"It makes me laugh. The part I don't understand, the dude is trying to act like I went to his house and took it from his computer. I don't know him from a can of paint. I'm 15 years deep. That's how you attack a king? You attack moi? Come on, man. You got to come correct. You the laughing stock. People are like, 'You can't be serious.'"^[13]

Third-party analysis

A device in Timbaland's studio, as seen in video clips from the MTV show "Timbaland's Diary", has been identified as an Elektron SidStation.^[2][14] This device is a MIDI-controlled synthesizer based on the SID chip 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^[14][15] and used the SidStation for running it to the studio system.^[2][14] 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. ... MOS Technology SIDs: The right image shows a 6581 from MOS Technology, at the time they were known as the Commodore Semiconductor Group (CSG) and the left image shows an 8580 from MOS Technology. ... The High Voltage SID Collection is both the name of a project to build a collection of music created on the MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID sound chip in Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computers and the collection itself. ...

Chris Abbott, maintainer of the website C64Audio.com, posted an in-depth analysis on the topic and summarizes it in his on-line article. Abbott has commercially released Commodore 64 music, most notably the "Back in Time" CD series. Abbott writes regarding the alleged plagiarism:

"What appears to have happened is that the three-voice output from the original C64 version has had the bass voice silenced: that missing bass voice then follows the original tune except for a couple of changed notes, and the removal of some octave jumps. However, various technical procedures show that other components of the song (chords/melody/rhythm) have been exactly reproduced. This is vanishingly unlikely to have happened by chance."^[14]

Abbott also notes that although the evidence seems to be conclusive, the eventual outcome is not. The record company has a multitude of possible reactions to the controversy as well as many possible reasons why the sample was not cleared on the first place.

A more artistic proof of the similarities was made by a blogger who mixed the two songs together and called it Do it in the Acid jazzed evening.^[16]

Similar cases

Earlier examples of unauthorized commercial use of SID music have been brought up by sources covering the Timbaland plagiarism controversy.

An often-mentioned example is Zombie Nation's 1999 hit Kernkraft 400, which was a remake of David Whittaker's song for the 1984 Commodore 64 game Lazy Jones. David Whittaker was paid an undisclosed sum for it.^[17] Another example is the Dutch hit You've Got My Love, for which the artist Bas "Bastian" Bron sampled the drums from Jeroen Tel's and Reyn Ouwehand's song made for the Rubicon game. Both of the cases were won by the original authors in court.^[2][14] Zombie Nation is a German techno and electro project of the Munich based DJ and producer Florian Senfter (aka Splank!). Until 1999 Emanuel Guenther (aka Mooner) was also involved in the project. ... David Whittaker is known for numerous computer game tunes he wrote in 1980s and early 1990s for many different formats. ... Lazy Jones is a computer game for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX and Tatung Einstein. ... Bas Bron is a musical artist and a producer of mostly electronic music from Amsterdam, The Netherlands. ... Jeroen Godfried Tel (aka Wave) is a Dutchman known for numerous computer game tunes he wrote in the 1980s and early 1990s for the Commodore 64. ...

An earlier example of unauthorized use of demoscene-based tracker music also exists. In 2000, a small-scale American artist Jay Newingham was accused of directly copied several well-known demoscene songs for his electronica band Planet-X (not to be confused with Derek Sherinian's Planet X), including pieces such as Purple Motion's soundtrack for the Second Reality demo. This case was never taken to the court, but MP3.com agreed that the tracks violated third-party copyrights and withdrew the tracks as being in violation of the site terms and conditions.^[18] ModPlug Tracker in Fast Tracker 2 colors mode Tracker is the generic term for a class of software music sequencers which, in their purest form, allow the user to arrange sound samples stepwise on a timeline across several monophonic channels. ... Derek Sherinian (born August 25, 1966 in Laguna Beach, California) is a ‎rock and fusion keyboardist based in Los Angeles, California. ... Planet X is an evolution of keyboardist Derek Sherinians 1999 solo album Planet X. Sherinian has stated in several interviews that his intention when forming Planet X was to create a band that played their instruments so fiercely, that they would strike fear in the hearts of all musicians... Jonne Valtonen, a. ... Second Reality is a demo created by Future Crew, released at the demoscene party Assembly 93. ...

The Fitts for Fight case also involved stolen chipmusic. Fitts for Fight is a female duo consisting of Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard and Julie Ilona Balas from Kristiansand in Norway. ...

Jamba sold music by Bodenständig 2000 without permission.^[19] Jamba! or JAMBA can refer to several things: Jamba!, a ringtone vendor owned by VeriSign (known as Jamster! in some countries) Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement Jamba, Angola Jamba Juice As a colloquializaiton of the smoothies produced by Jamba Juice This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated... Bodenständig 2000 is a electronic music group from Germany, founded 1995 by Dragan Espenschied and Bernhard Kirsch. ...

In the April of 2008, a similar case was revealed about self-proclaimed "chiptune maestro" Laromlab, who released his self-titled album on Mushpot Records, but shortly after was discovered that the entire album is in fact the work of a chiptune collective called the YM Rockerz. Mushpot responded by dropping Laromlab immediately from the label^[20], and Laromlab himself has issued an apology, stating the "project was a hoax, a complete fallacy".^[21] As of April 4, 2008, no legal action was known to be taken. Laromlab(http://www. ... is the 94th day of the year (95th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance to the Gregorian calendar. ...

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^[22], and according to the Finnish news portal eDome, "Suni and other demoscene hobbyists" already knew about it at this time.^[2] The controversy began to spread once a comment was posted to the Pouët.net forum, a prominent demoscene website, on October 4, 2006.^[23] The post did not initially spark a wider internet debate until a January 11, 2007 post was made on the Something Awful forums.^[24] The Something Awful post was later covered by Slashdot,^[25] and Digg^[26] that finally brought larger-scale attention. A typical Internet forum discussion, with common elements such as quotes and spoiler brackets A page from a forum showcasing emoticons and Internet slang An Internet forum is a web application for holding discussions and posting user generated content. ... Pouët Pouët, or pouet. ... is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Something Awful, often abbreviated to SA, is a comedy website housing a variety of content, including blog entries, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. ... Slashdot, often abbreviated as /.[1], is a science, science fiction, and technology-related news website owned by SourceForge, Inc. ... Digg is a community-based popularity website with an emphasis on technology and science articles, recently expanding to a broader range of categories such as politics and entertainment. ...

Mainstream coverage

One of the first large media to react to the on-line controversy was the Finnish Broadcasting Company, which published a news item on the topic in January 14, 2007.^[27] YLE (Yleisradio Oy) is Finlands national broadcasting company, founded in 1926. ... is the 14th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The electronic music magazine Side-Line put a complete news round-up up on its website.^[28] Finnish tabloids Ilta-Sanomat,^[29] Iltalehti,^[30] and newspapers ITviikko,^[31] and DigiToday^[32] also published articles about the suspected plagiarism on January 15, 2007. // Side-line Magazine was started in 1989 by two university students David Noiret and Seba Dolimont who noticed that there was a distinctive lack of media interest in the independent music scene, and especially a lack of coverage in the darkwave, dark electro, endzeit, gothic, gothic metal and electro industrial... Ilta-Sanomat is a tabloid which is the second largest newspaper in Finland. ... Iltalehti is a daily tabloid newspaper and the third largest newspaper in Finland. ... is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On January 16th, Finnish news portal eDome published an article about the case saying in the English summary that: is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

"It is beyond any doubt that Timothy 'Timbaland' Mosley has directly copied large sections of Janne Suni’s songs, much more than any 'fair use' would allow. Timbaland has not sampled tiny bits or effects from the song, but whole sections. This is a clear breach of copyright." ^[2]

The article also covered similar cases from the past and notified that both the competition and the prize ceremony "were witnessed by the 4000-5000 people at the event. The competition and the ceremony were also shown in Helsinki area cable TV."^[2] The same day, the news reached Norwegian media, including Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation^[33] and Dagbladet^[34], both of which interviewed Gallefoss. Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) - the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation - is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company. ... Dagbladet is Norways third largest newspaper with a circulation of 191,164 copies in 2002. ...

On January 17th, the case was reported on briefly by the Rolling Stone website,^[35] XXL Magazine,^[36] and the popular German IT news portal Heise online. Heise's story suggests that Timbaland downloaded Gallefoss's SID arrangement from the High Voltage SID Collection.^[15]. This article is about the magazine. ... A 2005 cover of XXL, featuring Snoop Dogg and The Game. ... Heinz Heise is a German publishing house. ... The High Voltage SID Collection is both the name of a project to build a collection of music created on the MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID sound chip in Commodore CBM-II, Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 home computers and the collection itself. ...

On January 18th, Rolling Stone put the controversy as top news of the day with a more detailed article^[3]. Later that day the San Jose Mercury News covered the story in their blog^[37] The Mercs sections vary by day of the week, but Business, Sports, and The Valley are standard daily fare. ...

On January 22nd, MTV took notice of the issue with a longer article and according video-news. It is not clear if this video news was merely for online consumption or actually broadcast^[38]. MTV owned sister station VH-1 also published the MTV news story. MTV had apparently tried to reach Timbaland's representatives via phone and e-mail, but they "had not responded at press time".^[38] This article is about the original U.S. music television channel. ... VH1 (which stands for Video Hits 1) is an American cable television channel that was created in 1985. ...

Criticism

The controversy has also been criticized. According to XXL Magazine, there has been too much media coverage on the event. XXL claims that much of the visibility can be attributed to "the collective pride of a bunch of geeks and their ongoing war with mainstream media". XXL also claims that plagiarism of this scale happens all the time, and goes on to compare it to the kind of sampling found in "90% of pre-1997 hip hop" as well as to the riff-stealing in blues and rock music.^[36] A 2005 cover of XXL, featuring Snoop Dogg and The Game. ...

References

External links

• Acidjazzed Evening (MOD format, ZIP-compressed) or as .mp3 format
• Acid Jazz (C64 remix) (SID format)
• Collection of different sources about the issue