Back in 2009, Finnish label Kernal Records Oy filed a lawsuit against producer Timbaland and Nelly Furtado claiming that they stole elements from their artist’s song for the tune “Do It.” Earlier this week, Miami, Florida federal magistrate Judge Edwin Torres tossed the suit, which sought $10 million to $20 million in damages.
“We’re very happy,” said Timbaland representative Karen Stetson. “We thought from the beginning that this issue was an important one and followed the plain language of the federal Copyright Act. But the other side was trying to get away from the plain language of the Copyright Act.”
Kernal originally claimed that the source song, “Acid Jazzed Evening,” was published on Australian disk magazine Vandalism News in 2002 and posted to the Internet the same year. The suit centered on “whether the European tracks were first published on the Internet or in Europe.”
Plaintiffs disputed that the song was first published on the web. U.S. copyright law rules that “music published first on the Internet is considered U.S.-created and must be copyrighted to be protected.” Kernal did not register the song before suing, and is planning to appeal the ruling.
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