http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATkHbfbQAc4

"'Sample' and 'stole' are two different things...  Stole is like I walk in your house, watch you make that beat, took your Pro Tools, and went back to my place...  Then sampled is like you heard it somewhere, and then you sampled it. But you didn't know-- maybe you didn't know who it was by because it don't have the credits listed-- so you just used it.  'Hey I dunno if I like it but I'm gonna just use it, maybe somebody might will put a sample claim in on it. I don't know. I'm saying but, I like it... I don't have no research-- I mean time is comin' up I gotta turn the record in.'  So, that's what sampling is.  That's not stealing, 'cause everybody sounds like everybody everyday. And so, that's what a sample is.  Like, maybe he didn't get his credit 'cause, hey, I sampled this, I got it in my game. I don't know. It don't have a listing it just say, 'c64... commodore 64'. I don't know. Y'know what I'm sayin' so... I like it, I found it, I got sounds upon sounds upon sounds upon sounds I don't know what's public domain and what's not.  Some stuff don't say."  

Then he goes off on a tangent about the time Swiss Beats was sued for using a Casio keyboard demo song-- a case fairly irrelevant to his own.  According to Timbaland, it irrelevant whether or not the demo songs are copyrighted, since he bought the keyboard. "You can't sue me. Buying what I bought purchased this." I wonder if Timbaland bothers to fine print when he signs contracts.  I support the practice of sampling and am opposed to certain aspects of current international copyright laws, but find Timbaland's faith in ignorance as a legal protection irresponsible.

There is a third category.

Stealing
Sampling



and Covers/Remixing

Now Tmbaland did not do the third one, but I do believe that it should be noted as a notable third category as their are legal fine lines with it and people often feel that covers or remixes is stealing of a sort.

Oh, and hi guys. First post in months?

Remember Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve? haha fools lost their cash due to uncleared samples.

If the Finnish version weren't head over heals better than the other one, I wouldn't care.

Although the fact that the new song isn't even arranged differently makes it fail.

My song, Blue Latin Norway, bears a slight melodic resemblance to Blue Skies, but it's not stealing; it's just using 5 notes in the same pattern with the same rhythm at a different tempo with a different style.  You see that happen in hundreds of thousands of songs. (for the sake of complete information, my bit is similar to the "nothing but blue skies" bit, although it's quantitised differently, so I guess the only perfect match is the notes.)

If people start getting overparanoid about stuff like you mentioned Tofu, then you couldn't use a 1, 4, 5 chord change anymore since some Blues guy did it first.

In other words, almost every melody and chord progression has already been done by someone at some time. So unless it's a fairly blatant steal, I don't think you need to worry about it.

OLD

It's a timeless discussion, actually.

To be honest, I sample quite a bit. No, I haven't sold any of my beats with uncleared materials, but if I did I would be sure to do so and give due credit to the original artist. Sampling and Hip Hop have walked hand in hand, and today is no exception. Everyone has their crates and MPC's digging for the next cut. Just some people think they are above the law.
Timbalame is:
1) Giving beat makers a bad name
2) Untalented
3) Uncreative
4) An ass to the small man
5) A hypocrite
6) The persona with the most overinflated ego in hip hop.

I mean C'mon. He adds some "drumz' to Acid Jazzed Evening and calls it art. Anyone can do this shit. Many of us producers do it everyday. Do I claim to be a musical genious? No. Do I claim to be talented? No. What I do claim is that I'll either make melodies that are original or catalogue which of my beats use which samples (or keep a mental note). Most other respectable producers do this too. Timbalame's actions smack of an "above the law" attitude that is not to be tolerated.