News

Timbaland Dodges Copyright Lawsuit Thanks To Indian Copyright Law

11:00 a.m. · March 30, 2011 · by Andrew Winistorfer

If you've listened to any Timbaland beat since, oh, 2002, you know the guy has a great affinity for Bollywood samples. He apparently can get away with sampling Bollywood without bothering to clear the samples though, thanks to the haziness of Indian copyright law.

Recently, a U.S. court threw out a lawsuit against Timbaland for using an unauthorized sample on a song by the Game ("Put You on the Game") brought by a publishing company in India against the producer, because it turns out that the company that published the song, Saregama India LTD., no longer held the copyright. Basically, in Indian law, there could be three different copyright holders of certain music, and in some cases, the copyright reverts to the producer or director of the film. So, in the case of Timbaland's sample, the copyright is owned by the producer of the film, who isn't suing Timbaland for copyright infringement. So Tim is off the hook. [Hollywood Reporter]