Helsinki district court plays host to Glenn Rune Gallefoss vs Universal Music in a Helsinki courtroom on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th December. Witnesses for Glenn appearing personally include ... me

Outcome should be known by Friday.

Chris

KICK HIS ASS!!!!

At least I hope it's a bit embarrassing for Timboy...

Well, the judges shall decide

Two things come to my mind when hearing this:
1) Evidence is hard to ignore - it would not be reasonable if Timbaland is found not guilty. But the judge will decide, I guess.
2) Thinking of the amount of "real" people being sued and fined beyond reason for damages and losses because they happened to be small pirate fish(!) I hope the court sets an example stating that copying other people's material without an agreement is a complete no-no! He shouldn't walk away being fined ridiculously low, so to speak. Again, it is up to the judge.

Let's hope Timbaland doesn't give the judge too many Lamborghinis before friday

Since the case is against Universal Music Finland (initially), Timbapants won't be showing up But Finns are not ones to be swayed by flashy pants hip-hop producers.

Chris

So what happens if GRG should lose this? Would he have to pay the costs for Universal Music as well? I guess with their attourney army that could be quite expencive.

Ahhh best off luck Chris, hope the judge knows his stuff.

Im very curios about the result. I hope you will kick their arses back to Timba-Tukka-Land...

Hope things are going well...

OK, evidence finished yesterday, decision expected Jan 24th. No one knows how it's going to go in the legal system, though if they actually consider the evidence properly, it's a no-brainer.

Chris

I agree totally, Chris. And if they rule in favor of mr Timba they will only add fuel to the fire of any music/software pirate...

Well, it all comes down to two disputed points:

1) Can someone with modern equipment but no SID produce a complex SID which sounds _exactly_ the same?
2) Is bitwise comparison of output relevant when applied to the output from an analog source? And can someone escape bitwise comparison by doing enough post-production to change the original waveform?

To believe that there was no sampling means believing two knowledgable witnesses over one witness who insists that Timbaland can indeed produce an almost cycle-exact SID replication without a SID (without providing any evidence at all about how it would be done - "it's old technology - of course you can do it with modern technology" says he). As usual, in the legal system, there's no telling who the judges will believe, and who they won't.

There was no contest to the assertion that SID composing wasn't a creative act: I played five different Popcorn SIDs from different authors to prove that the end result was very much dependent on individual creativity. And the guy from TEOSTO (Finnish Performance Copyright Society) on their side actually spoke highly of the creativity of the SID scene (while implying that it was outside the experience of TEOSTO: not exactly true, since SID composers belong to STIM, the Swedish version). Which kind of blew major arguments the other side were making (that MOD -> SID was just a converter, essentially).

Court action is annoying, since you think "oh, I'll be able to not think about it when it's over", but then you occasionally reply stuff in your mind at odd moments. I just want to get on with Xmas.

Chris

Thanks for the update Chris, it is very much appreciated.

That's ridiculous. Could as well say:
"Vinyl records are old technology - of course you can press them with modern CD burners."

If sampling is denied in this case, and he gets through with it, you might as well deny sampling of any other piece of music made with synthesizers. You could take any Kraftwerk song and deny sampling, because the synths they used were "old technology."