Musician sues over Timbaland produced Xscape track Chicago.

qbee

Proud Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
11,824
Points
0
Location
Michigan USA
An unknown singer/songwriter is taking producer Timbaland to court over a posthumous Michael Jackson song he believes infringes on his copyright.



........Timbaland ....................................................................Corey Rooney

Sidney Earl Swanson claims the track Chicago, from Jackson's recent Xscape album, is a rip off of his own 2002 tune, Come Home On the Move.

According to the complaint, filed in Los Angeles federal court this week , Swanson's lawyer writes, "Defendants copied and incorporated substantial, original portions of the infringed composition in (Chicago)."

He is suing for damages from Timbaland, songwriter Cory Rooney, and bosses at Jackson's firm MJJ Productions and its parent company Sony Music Holdings, and is seeking an injunction to halt the continued sale of the track.

Xscape, which features eight previously unheard tunes recorded before the King of Pop's death in 2009, was released in May (14). The songs were updated by a range of top producers including Timbaland and Rodney Jerkins.


Source: Contact Music, Love Survives

 
What an imbecile. Chicago is written (and recorded) in 1999, 3 years before his "tune". He could have at least read the album booklet before making up things! I'm sick of these liars.
 
^

I'm pretty sure in this type of cases you sue everyone involved. Plus the news story says "infringed composition" so I think the music is at issue here and all of Timbaland, Rooney and MJ is credited as producers hence lawsuit against them all plus Sony the publisher/distributor.
 
Well, it could be just another frivolous lawsuit, but let's wait for more details first. It is possible that he wrote the song before 1999 and simply did not get to release it until 2002. It could also be that he is referring to the 'contemporization' that Timbaland created. It certainly would not be the first time Timbaland is involved in a plagiarism case.
 
Had a look around and could find a guitar player/songwriter/teacher named Sidney E. Swanson from Chicago (not joking, lol..).

This is his YouTube channel:
http://youtu.be/YWAZI672Slc

And gigmasters' page:
http://www.gigmasters.com/One-Man-Band/Sidney-E?a=138166#/audio

No idea if this is the man that is suing of course. It is interesting though that out of the few things the YouTube account liked, one of them is Chicago (the contemporized version). This man seems to be a blues guitarist and the production on the two songs on his Gigmasters page sounds relatively vintage, so if it is him, it is perhaps more likely that he would sue over the original songwriting rather than the 'contemporized' Timbaland production.
 
I think we should not jump to conclusions here. Sadly, stealing or uncredited sampling is not uncommon in the music industry. Heck, You Are Not Alone is an example of that... Also, there is someone involved here (Timbaland) who has a bad reputation in this regard. Of course, it could easily be a rubbish case, like the ones MJ had to go to court for in '93 and '94, but we don't know that yet.
 
Since we are talking about plagiarism, I just wanted to post 2 songs that are written and recorded before Michael Jackson and that sound very similar to me. One is well known for which MJ was sued but MJ won the case and the other is not well known outside of Croatia (or ex-Yugoslavia countries). I'm not saying that MJ plagiarized those songs, MJ probably never even heard those songs. But they do sound similar. The point is that two artists can make similar music in 2 different parts of the world in different time. Just like the verdict was in "I Cigni di Balaka" case, the two artists may have just been influenced or inspired by the same thing to create their music.

Here are the songs:

Al Bano & Romina Power - I Cigni di Balaka (1987) - similar to Will You Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jzMeJnnkmQ

Magazin - Poljupci (1988) - guitar similar to Black or White
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJswG4pjXzM

What do you think about these? So please before anyone starts to attack Timbo, remember that even if the songs sound similar it doesn't have to be the case of plagiarism.
 
Since we are talking about plagiarism, I just wanted to post 2 songs that are written and recorded before Michael Jackson and that sound very similar to me. One is well known for which MJ was sued but MJ won the case and the other is not well known outside of Croatia (or ex-Yugoslavia countries). I'm not saying that MJ plagiarized those songs, MJ probably never even heard those songs.

Dieter Wiesner actually claims in his book that MJ did hear Al Bano song and was indeed inspired by it. IDK how credible this is.

Offtop: The artifice of the album cover is striking when it's surrounded by two flash-and-blood people. Looks like a resurrected zombie, really.
 
I don't find Dieter Wiesner a trustable source. Plus Al Bano's song was also "inspired by" the Ink Spots' Bless You for Being an Angle. So he was kind of throwing stones while sitting in a glass house when he sued Michael. And I can sooner imagine MJ listening to old African-American groups than Al Bano. I think it was also established that this musical theme comes from some ancient Indian music or something like that, so it even preceded the Ink Spots song.


 
Last edited:
Since we are talking about plagiarism, I just wanted to post 2 songs that are written and recorded before Michael Jackson and that sound very similar to me. One is well known for which MJ was sued but MJ won the case and the other is not well known outside of Croatia (or ex-Yugoslavia countries). I'm not saying that MJ plagiarized those songs, MJ probably never even heard those songs. But they do sound similar. The point is that two artists can make similar music in 2 different parts of the world in different time. Just like the verdict was in "I Cigni di Balaka" case, the two artists may have just been influenced or inspired by the same thing to create their music.

Here are the songs:

Al Bano & Romina Power - I Cigni di Balaka (1987) - similar to Will You Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jzMeJnnkmQ

Magazin - Poljupci (1988) - guitar similar to Black or White
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJswG4pjXzM

What do you think about these? So please before anyone starts to attack Timbo, remember that even if the songs sound similar it doesn't have to be the case of plagiarism.
It can be a fine line, but imo there are still clear differences between songs having a similar melody, riff or chord progression, versus it being a rip-off. Artists do not live in a vacuum and are inspired by each other all the time. They may even consciously use elements they heard elsewhere in their own music, and I think a lot of the times it can easily fall under the banner of 'inspiration'. For instance, Bruce Springsteen took this riff by the Animals, played it in the major instead of the minor scale, and used it in his own work. I wouldn't call it a rip-off, as the songs are entirely different overall.

Similarities like this are especially likely to occur when the musical elements are simple and straightforward. I think the riff in Lou Reed's Dirty Boulevard is more similar to the Black or White riff than your example, but I wouldn't call it a rip-off. It's a very simple, short riff that you can easily imagine many artists coming up with independently. Plus, the compositions around it are entirely different. On the other hand, You Are Not Alone does sound like more of a direct rip-off of this.

When it comes to Timbaland the issue is slightly different, because the claims against him have mainly been about uncredited sampling. This used to be commonplace, until hip hop really took off and millions started to be made from sometimes completely using someone else's music and rapping over it. Of course sampling can be used very creatively, but it is also very common for artists (mainly in mainstream rap & r&b) to just take an original instrumental and use it without hardly doing anything to the music (such as here). When this started to happen, the original artists then started to file copyright infringement claims. Nowadays it is the norm to clear samples and credit the original artists.

Contrary to sampling well-known artists (e.g. a MJ instrumental that is well-known), Timbaland has had multiple cases leveled against him from relatively unknown artists. They were never asked for permission and had to find out from tv that their music was used (often in the kind of direct rip-off fashion I mentioned above) in a hit song that people were making millions off of. This track is one example. A more recent one concerns the track Versus, which is completely centered around a downpitched sample from this song. He also has frequently searched out Arabic records and built tracks entirely around samples from those songs without giving credit to the original artists, as you can hear here. I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for the original artists, especially when they have to listen to Timbaland saying in interviews that he has no time for research, calling them a "freaking jerk", and basically saying that people should just feel honored that he samples them (and makes millions off of their music, presumably. Gee, what an honor.).
 
Last edited:
There are some developments about this case and if you ask me it turned out to be quite frivolous.

A short summary below

Swanson is a steel factory worker, truck driver and a musician. He says he created his instrumental song in 1976 and registered it in 2002. He performed it in small venues. Claims he performed it 38 times and sold 1500 copies of it in the last 40 years. The similarity seems to be the bass line in the new version of Chicago.

Defendants want the case to be dismissed saying it's baseless. His song wasn't widely circulated and he says he didn't give or send it to any of the parties. Therefore it's hard to claim that the parties have heard his song to start with. The expert witnesses examined the songs and believe that the similarities are common and basic elements such as a bossa nova rhythm, a blues bass progression etc.
 
Oh god please no not that same dumb crap again!
 
Al Bano & Romina Power - I Cigni di Balaka (1987) - similar to Will You Be There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jzMeJnnkmQ

First two lines are similar but still different melody and different rhythm. The rest of the song is nothing like Will you be there.

Magazin - Poljupci (1988) - guitar similar to Black or White
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJswG4pjXzM

No, this does not sound like Black or White at all. Totally different melody.
 
Last edited:
and this one is over.

The case got dismissed with no settlement.

I think it's because the defendants had a really strong argument and this person had no case.
 
and this one is over.

The case got dismissed with no settlement.

I think it's because the defendants had a really strong argument and this person had no case.
I wish these other blasted cases would get dismissed so easily-they don't have cases either.
(Although I just realized it's been 2 years. That's still a long time.)
 
I wish these other blasted cases would get dismissed so easily-they don't have cases either.
(Although I just realized it's been 2 years. That's still a long time.)

Exactly so what is the hold up let move on. It a shame that the court system has to deal with these cases what a waste of time and taxpayer money.


Glad this one is over.:clapping:

No fund here.
 
What an imbecile. Chicago is written (and recorded) in 1999, 3 years before his "tune". He could have at least read the album booklet before making up things! I'm sick of these liars.
This is Sidney Earl Swanson
Cory Rooney had my hard drive. We let him off the case for exchange for my hard drive. Why don’t you do a interview on me and get the facts. My music was was originally written in 1976. I have all of the court documents to prove it.
 
and this one is over.

The case got dismissed with no settlement.

I think it's because the defendants had a really strong argument and this person had no case.
No true everything can be proven. This is not about Michael
 
This is Sidney Earl Swanson
Cory Rooney had my hard drive. We let him off the case for exchange for my hard drive. Why don’t you do a interview on me and get the facts. My music was was originally written in 1976. I have all of the court documents to prove it.
Sidney, would you be able to share your song with us?
 
Because Coo

yes, How can I upload to share it we you. I can share everything. We let Cory Rooney off the case in return for him surrendering my hard drive. It’s all on the court documents.
You can easily do it on wetransfer.com. Just drag and drop, and post the url here. Super simple and completely free!

Looking forward to hearing your music, this is very interesting. Thank you so much for posting here and sharing more about the case with us.
 
You can easily do it on wetransfer.com. Just drag and drop, and post the url here. Super simple and completely free!

Looking forward to hearing your music, this is very interesting. Thank you so much for posting here and sharing more about the case with us.
Sounds good I’ll be happy to share. You can also listen to my music on Amazon. It’s renamed Over the Edge. I did it for a movie score. Same music when it was originally done. Just type in my full name. And just listen to the music and you can sing the melody on top of it.
 
Sounds good I’ll be happy to share. You can also listen to my music on Amazon. It’s renamed Over the Edge. I did it for a movie score. Same music when it was originally done. Just type in my full name. And just listen to the music and you can sing the melody on top of it.
Or Apple Music
 
Back
Top