Jay Z & Timbaland To Testify In ‘Big Pimpin’ Plagiarism Lawsuit

Published: Wednesday 12th Aug 2015 by David
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The music mogul Jay Z has been accused of teaming up with his ‘Big Pimpin‘ producer Timbaland to steal music from a lesser known artist to create the Hip Hop classic.

Unfamiliar with this story? Read more here.

Now hit the link below to learn more about the development set to draw more attention to the pair’s alleged theft.

In 2007 a man named Osama Ahmed Fahmy filed a lawsuit against Jay Z, Timbaland and outlets who used ‘Pimpin’ for promotional purposes.

Why? Fahmy is the nephew of Baligh Hamdy, the man behind a number named ‘Khosara, Khosara’ which has been identified as the cut sampled in the Jay jam.

Listen to both songs here.

Timbaland claims he paid $100,000 EMI Music  to use the number after they claimed the owned the rights to the song thanks to a deal that tied them to ‘Khosara.’

Fahmy isn’t moved by this claim as he argues that they did not receive permission from the song’s composer before using the number and has vowed to make them pay for their supposed song snatching.

Billboard adds:

The Jay Z side believes that it has properly licensed “Khosara, Khosara,” and even if not, it’s not for Fahmy to challenge. Soon after Timbaland made his $100,000 deal, Fahmy reached agreement with the Egyptian outfit that had given EMI rights. According to court documents, the Hamdy heirs got a “lump-sum buyout” in exchange for assigning song rights. “Pursuant to the 2002 Agreement, Plaintiff gave up exclusive control of all rights in Khosara that have application in the United States, and therefore he has no standing to bring any claims,” states defendants’ memorandum on Monday.

Fahmy’s lawyers have a different story — and it’s one that leans on the moral rights of authors in Egyptian law and how this impacts licensing contracts.

“The evidence will show that the defendants did not enter into valid agreements that ‘expressly and in detail’ — including indicating the range, purpose, and period and place of exploitation — convey the right to use Khosara, Khosara in Big Pimpin‘,” states plaintiff’s memorandum. “The evidence will also show that the defendants did not obtain the consent of the author or his heirs to introduce modifications in or additions to Khosara Khosara; therefore, any license to economically exploit Khosara Khosara in Big Pimpin‘ would be null and void.”

The defendants respond, “Throughout the course of this litigation, Plaintiff has consistently tried to make this a case about so-called ‘moral rights,’ complaining for example that under Egyptian law, authors and their heirs can always refuse to permit use of a composition in manners deemed to be ‘objectionable,’ regardless of whether they previously gave up all of their economic rights in connection therewith. This Court, however, already has properly determined that moral rights have no application in the United States, and cannot support Plaintiff’s copyright infringement claims.’

There’s more.

For, Fahmy has enlisted Judith Finell to help him on his legal journey. Why this is so important? Finell is the musicologist who testified on the behalf of Marvin Gaye‘s family when they took on Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams for using Gaye material to build their #1 single ‘Blurred Lines.’

Gaye’s family won.

The feuding parties will face each other in court on October 13th.

Your thoughts?

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  1. shakira stan August 12, 2015

    Yet his wife is the biggest thief in the industry .

  2. Scoop August 12, 2015

    Well, if they already paid for it, this should be done

    • Bets August 12, 2015

      Correct and it is so old = stature of limitation??? I am sure Jay will obey to the ruling of the courts, whatever the outcome. Strange that this pops up now ……

  3. Caleb August 12, 2015

    This is a case of 100% plagiarism no doubt about it.

  4. Casual-T August 12, 2015

    This case has nothing in common with the Blurred Lines case. BL was inspired by Got to Give It Up in the sense that the Pharrell used similar instrumentation to Got to Give to create a similar feel to the record, but there was no direct sampling nor was the melody copied. Big Pimpin contains clear plagiarism. Jay-Z, Timbaland, et al. need to settle and stop wasting money on lawyer fees.

  5. Credits August 12, 2015

    Timbaland is always sampling from sources overseas, hopefully he learns from this that now he should just hire foreigner musicians to come up with original material for him.

  6. Is she a witch? August 12, 2015

    OMG! WTF is going on? Rihanna left his office on mediacr0tchout. He got allllllll lawsuits and Tidal sink!

  7. #TeamTinashe Stan August 12, 2015

    Ummm…. I’m pretty sure Jay Z and Timbaland have a picture together but….. nvm.

  8. Shady81 August 12, 2015

    I feel like if you’re gonna sample a song get permission to use the song find a lawyer who knows the guidelines of copyright infringement if you don’t, find the original producer, writer, or composer of the song, if that person is deceased then notify the estate, if that person is still living then notify that you want to record there song, that person would then get on the phone with their lawyer so that all parties can set up a meeting make negotiate a price for the song or production of the song then the contract must be sign, dated, and your done it’s not that hard to do but these producer’s decided to take the lazy route and not give people their credit nor pay SMH for a song the original artist has done that the current artist or producer wants to remake it makes no damn sense this will not be the first nor last plagiarism cases amongst musicians or artist these new aged producers and artists better start giving credit and paying for the samplings and this isn’t the first time Jay has got in trouble for this remember 99 problems but a b**** ain’t one. Well that was originally done by Maurice of 2 Live Crew and Ice-T but hey Jay still hasn’t learnt his lesson SMH just stop being greedy it’s enough to go around.

  9. What now August 12, 2015

    KIII. WEAVEMEUPOYNCE MUST BE CRYING HERSELF ASLEEP KNOWING THAT “EMPIRE” IS CRUMBLING RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER HAZEL COLOR CONTACTS

    • Keri Qween August 12, 2015

      Screams@weavemeupoynce

  10. boutdatlife August 12, 2015

    Na son. That is that. No beating around any bushes here… No well maybes That’s that! Lol. Damn. YouTube is causing wreck on you producers. Whoda thought 10 years later that internet would b the force that it is today…. Sucks doesn’t it! B more original artists cuz there’s eyes everywhere. That’s prolly why b ain’t releasing nutn yet (u get my drift) lol. Na

  11. xedos August 12, 2015

    So why not go after EMI if the collect the money knowing they have no control or ownership. Someone got paid. its not like they use the sample and did not pay

  12. xedos August 12, 2015

    Universal should also pay some cash. their lawyer had to sign off on this

  13. Mark111 /.\ August 12, 2015

    It’s actually Timberland’s fault, but they’ll go after Jay because he has the money. in the early 2000s, Tim (we not knowing) sampled a lot of Arabic and Indian music. Not sure of if Get Your Freak On is sampled, but Aaliyah’s We Need A Resolution, More Than A Woman and Don’t Know What To Tell Ya were sampled.
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j43XB7dvQBs

  14. You wanna jbeyok love it right bettor like you do then my funky money August 13, 2015

    Somebody gonna lose their case

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