Did Producer Timbaland Steal From the Demoscene?

gloom writes "In 2000 the Finnish demoscene musician Janne Suni (also known as 'Tempest') won the Oldskool Music Competition at the Assembly demoparty with his four-channel Amiga .MOD entitled 'Acid Jazzed Evening.' A Commodore 64 musician called 'grg' remade the song on the C64 (using the infamous SID soundchip); it is this that was stolen. The producer's name is Timbaland and he is one of the hottest names in American music these days. The track in question is called 'Do it' and it is featured on the Nelly Furtado album 'Loose' on the Geffen label. Getting nowhere with Geffen, the demoscene has now risen to the aid of Tempest, first by creating a stir at SomethingAwful (files downloadable from the forum), then at Digg.com, then on YouTube, with a video demonstrating the blatant ripoff. Being an online-posting musician myself — what rights do I have if this should ever happen to me, and what can be done to raise awareness about such things?"

Uh, okay...

[DrRevotron]

Why is this news? Everyone knows that hip-hop is unoriginal to start with.

Piracy is okay if you are rich

[Anonymous Coward]

People please. There's a double-standard. Try to keep up with these things.

other ripoffs

[Anonymous Coward]

C'mon, he ripped off his name from a brand of outdoor clothing. Does ripping off a demoscene song surprise anyone?

Pining for the Cjords

[stunt_penguin]

FFS keep this quiet!.... The RIAA (regular readers of /. I'm sure) will take notice and somehow manage to construct a legal argument meaning Timberlake gets to sue the Finnish artist for more than than the GDP of Finland. 7th Dimensional Copyright Theory or something. Wouldn't be the first time.

For hip hop,

[ack154]

It's not stealing. It's "sampling." At least that's how they usually justify it...

Re:You're unoriginal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Name a type of music that has been more influential in the last 30 years..

Music from the Demoscene, apparently.

Re:You're unoriginal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Name a type of music that has been more influential in the last 30 years..

Rock, jazz, classical.. hell even techno! Oh.. sorry.. being Slashdot I thought you meant for folks with IQs above say 110-120 or so. If you're talking about the "mildly retarded" range (i.e. can install a fart cannnon muffler without killing himself approximately 60% of the time), then yes, hip hop.

My main gripe about all of this is this:

A Commodore 64 musician called 'grg' remade the song on the C64 (using the infamous SID soundchip); it is this that was stolen.

Excuse me? INFAMOUS? Look bitches, even I knew the SID was the shizzle despite that I was an Atari 800 owner! Have some respect!

Re:Slashdot, help me know what to think!?!!

[RexRhino]

Slashdot, help me know what to think!?!!
Do we support this behavior (DJ Danger Mouse) or do we not (the example above)???

That is the great thing about Slashdot - your ideas don't need to be consistant - just knee jerk and reactionary, in order to be popular!

Re:Excellent video

[kfg]

. . .sing the Marine Hymn (Halls of Montezuma) to the tune of "Oh, My Darling Clementine." Just hum a few bars and see how well it fits. . .

. . .over Pachelbel's cello ground.

KFG

Re:Uh, okay...

[metalhed77]

Leave it to the pasty white boys of Slashdot to state misinformed stereotypes relating to a culture they have very limited exposure to.

And yes, I am aware of the contradictions in that statement.

Re:hottest name?

[bXTr]

timbaland? who the hell is that?

Just a guy who got tired of making shoes and became a music producer.

Good God, YouTube

[Sarusa]

Boy, if you ever thought a large number of /. commenters were flat out stupid (as opposed to ones who just disagree with you), following that link to YouTube will certainly make you feel much better about /. commenters!

Relevant xkcd [xkcd.com]

In defence of Timbaland

[Kjellander]

Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, Janne Suni's attorney would certainly want you to believe that his client wrote "Acid Jazzed Evening" ten years ago. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself! But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!

Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.

Re:Double moral in the /. community?

[nathanh]

Why I am not surprised to see that the very forum that applauded the release of the Grey Album by Danger Mouse now thinks that sampling and mixing is bad?

Tell me about it. And just last week I noticed that one Slashdotter supported the Democrats but another Slashdotter supported the Republicans. And the week before that I saw two Slashdotters who disagreed over climate change. It's as if Slashdotters have started having differences of opinion all of a sudden. I'm sure that's never happened before. About a year ago we all said and thought exactly the same things.

Re:hottest name?

[titusjan]

Seriously, it's two thousand goddamn seven, the "What is this X the article speaks of?" thing is OVER. You're on the fucking Internet, go to Google or Wikipedia and do five seconds of research.
... and act like you're an expert on the matter, like the rest of us!

Re:You're unoriginal.

[clambake]

You mistakenly put a link to Outkast in your 2% talent.

Re:You're missing the point.

[Registered Coward v2]

Nelly Furtado's a freaking Portugese CANADIAN. Where did they get Australian from?? /Canadian

Most of us can barely find Canada on the map even though it's our 51st state; let alone figure out where some small island in the Pacific is located so we naturally assume anyone that speaks English and is from the Pacific is Australian. But at least we know Lisboa is Australa's capital; and if you look closely enough at a map of Europe you can find Australia nestled between germany and Hungary.
What I find odd is that her last name is Furtado - that doesn't sound very Australian since they speak English, not Spanish.

Obrigado for playing.

Obligatory "Three Amigos" quote...

[thePfhitz]

Lucky Day: (reading telegram:) "Three Amigos, Hollywood, California. You are very great. 100,000 pesos. Come to Santa Poco put on show, stop. The In-famous El Guapo."

Dusty Bottoms: "What does that mean, 'in-famous'?"

Ned Nederlander: "Oh, Dusty. In-famous is when you're MORE than famous. This man El Guapo, he's not just famous, he's IN-famous."

Lucky Day: "100,000 pesos to perform with this El Guapo, who's probably the biggest actor to come out of Mexico!"

Dusty Bottoms: "Wow, in-famous? In-famous?"

Re:You're unoriginal.

[DreamerFi]

No, that's correct. They only have 2% talent.