When Janne Suni (aka Tempest) composed his Acidjazzed Evening song for Assembly 2000, one of the largest demo scene gatherings in the world, he probably didn’t think his contest winning tune would make even bigger news in 2006.
It appears Timbaland, a rather successful hip hop/rnb producer, thought Janne’s tune was kinda good as well, as he’s “borrowed” the melody and 16 bars of a Commodore 64 version of Janne’s tune in, at least, two songs that he’s produced.
Another demo scene composer, Glenn Rune Gallefoss (aka GRG) produced a Commodore 64 (Janne’s was made on an Amiga computer) version of Janne’s tune after the contest with permission from Janne. This is the version of the tune that’s blatantly copied into Timbaland’s songs. One of the songs, “Do It” by Nelly Furtado, is included in Nelly Furtado’s latest album that has sold 2.5M copies. The copyright belongs to Janne and Glenn.
Follow the original article to find out more about this blatant copyright violation by a RIAA recording artist. Not a word from Timbaland or his record label about this issue during the four months since the issue was uncovered.
Update 3/14/2007: Timbaland has since commented on his theft. An MTV reporter asks him about it at the end of an interview about other unrelated stuff, and Timbaland has the gall to completely dismiss the whole thing and make it sound like some sort of an ego trip thing:
“It makes me laugh,” he said. “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.’ “
He’s also calling the accusations “foolish”. Looks like all the fame and fortune has thoroughly gone to his head. Hypocrite thief. You got caught fair and square and your posturing and ego stroking is not gonna change that. Do the right thing and pay up, thief.
-TPP
