Timbaland Ripped Off A Demoscene Tune

This is something I read about a couple of weeks ago and found quite interesting, but just remembered about as my sister played a Nelly Furtado song during supper time. While the subject is not VGM per se, I believe it's still relevant enough to be posted here.

For those who don't know about it already, this news has for subject the Hip Hop producer Timbaland, who was showcased much last summer since he produced and did most of the music for the latest album of Nelly Furtado, "Loose". One of the songs on this album, "Do It", is a cool tune. However, much of this "cool" factor is related to the fact it features musical elements similar to a demoscene tune (songs made with computer systems, like the Amiga, but not for a game), so much that it can't be a coincidence, but rather a blatant copy. The demoscene music in question is "Acidjazzed Evening", composed by the Finnish tracker musician Tempest (Janne Suni) for the Assembly 2000 Oldskool Music Competition. It did very well; in fact, it won 1st place! So, it can be said that this is a rather well-known Amiga MOD tune. Two years later, Glenn Rune Gallefoss, a Commodore 64 musician, wrote a C64 version of "Acidjazzed Evening", with Tempest's consent.

In 2005, the problems begin! Timbaland released a set of cellular phone ringtones, including one titled "Block Party". You can definitely hear the C64 version of the tune in it, with the only thing changed being the drum samples. Another fact to prove this is not pure coincidence is that Timbaland actually has a SidStation module (hardware C64 audio player) in his studio, as can be seen in a video. No credits were given to Tempest, and since ringtones aren't the most popular media, this event didn't gather much attention. One year later, Nelly Furtado's album came out. Timbaland decided to recycle his "Block Party" tune and make a full song out of it, which resulted in "Do It". This time, there are lyrics and more effects, but the similarities with "Acidjazzed Evening" are still obvious, and again, the composition was not attributed to Tempest at all. People active around the demoscene noticed this and told Tempest about it. I believe no real attempt of pursuit has been made so far, but he mentionned on his website that he's in contact with a law firm since September 2006. Hopefully this will result into a victory over this act of intellectual property thievery.

When I first heard Nelly's new songs, I thought they were good, especially enjoying the fact they had a nice beat and synthesizers. This made me have a share of respect for Timbaland, music-wise. Sadly, it's all gone now, when I read about how he ripped off a demoscene tune without giving any credits or residuals from the millions they must have made with the album/live shows. And if this wasn't enough, Timbaland was actually asked about this matter in a radio interview and he mentioned he might have sampled it, but it's not the same thing as stealing in his book. He didn't really know if it was public domain or not, comparing it to a Casio keyboard preset demo. In my opinion, this is a ridiculous excuse. And here is a quote from him:

"It's from a videogame, idiot. Freaking jerk."

A total lack of respect for both the original artist and the medium (both tracker and video game music here)! I really hope Tempest will win this case and that Timbaland will face consequences for his actions and attitude.

Here are some related links:

Analysis by C64Audio.com
Flash animation comparing the different versions of the tune
Tempest's site about this subject

Timbaland radio interview: Get the Flash Player to play this audio file:

My goal was to make people aware of this story, but feel free to discuss or add more elements.

Jam it back in, in the dark.