Nelly Furtado, Timbaland facing copyright infringement lawsuit

Canadian/Portuguese singer Nelly Furtado and producer Timbaland are facing a copyright infringement lawsuit from record label executives in Finland.

The two have been accused of borrowing segments of someone else's song to create the track 'Do It', which had appeared on the singer's 2006 album Loose, and was a hit song in 2007.

Timbaland denied he had "stolen" extracts from 2000 computer demo Acidjazzed Evening by Finnish artist Janne Suni, or the remixed 2002 version by Norwegian musician Glenn Rune Gallefoss.

Gallefoss subsequently filed legal action against Furtado's Universal Finland record company bosses, but Helsinki District Court dismissed the case, and an appeals court is currently dealing it with.

And the case against Furtado and Timbaland refuses to go away - officials at Finland's Kernel Records, the company which owns the original sound recordings of Acidjazzed Evening, have now filed suit in Florida.

Papers filed at the Miami-Dade District Court on June 11 suggest Timbaland used a computer programme to "knowingly and wilfully steal" Gallefoss' tune as he created the beat for Do It, according to Allhiphop.com.

And the record company bosses are planning to use Timbaland's own words against him by quoting him in their lawsuit.

They claim the producer gave two radio interviews after the first accusations of plagiarism arose, and spoke about the allegations. He also attempted to explain his take on sampling a song and stealing it.

"Sample and stole is two different things. Stole is like I walked in your house, watched you make it... went to my house and told Nelly, 'Hey, I got a great song for you'," Contactmusic quoted him as reportedly telling one interviewer.

"Sample is like you heard it somewhere, and you just sampled. Maybe you didn't know who it was by because it don't have the credits listed (sic)," he had added.

The Fins are claiming copyright infringement and request an injunction prohibiting the further release, reprinting, performance and sale of the song Do It.