Vargas et al v. Pfizer Inc. et al

Filing 99

DECLARATION of Julie A. Ahrens in Support re: 98 Reply Memorandum of Law in Support. Document filed by Brian Transeau. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit W# 2 Exhibit X# 3 Exhibit Y)(Ahrens, Julie)

Vargas et al v. Pfizer Inc. et al

Doc. 99 Att. 1

Exhibit W

Dockets.Justia.com

MATTHEW RITTER

August 10, 2006
Page 1

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK -----------------------------------x RALPH VARGAS and BLAND-RICKY ROBERTS, Plaintiffs, Civil Action No. 04CV 9772 (JCF)

-against-

PFIZER, INC., PUBLICIS, INC., FLUID MUSIC, EAST WEST COMMUNICATIONS, INC. and BRIAN TRANSEAU p/k/a "BT", Defendants -----------------------------------x August 10, 2006 9:10 a.m. Videotaped Deposition of MATTHEW RITTER, taken by Defendants, pursuant to Notice, at the offices of Kirkland & Ellis, 153 East 53rd Street, New York, New York, before TAMMEY M. PASTOR, a Registered Professional Reporter, Certified LiveNote Reporter and Notary Public within and for the State of New York.

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MATTHEW RITTER

August 10, 2006
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MATTHEW RITTER A. Yes. It is my understanding that that is an album of music that Bust Dat Groove is a song of. Q. A. Q. do next? A. I contacted Paul Chin and told him that I did believe that it was absolutely the same piece of music. Q. A. Q. A. Take a step back for a minute. Okay. When you got the CD with the I listened to them on a small This original Have you ever had a copy of No. After you first listened to Funky Drummer Volume II?

Bust Dat Groove and Aparthenonia, what did you

two tracks what did you do? CD Walkman with headphones.

disc that I was given for some reason was not a great copy and did not actually play on my normal CD player. So I used a little small I mean I one and, you know, the second I heard them I knew they were one and the same. hear drum recordings all day long every week.
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MATTHEW RITTER

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MATTHEW RITTER I had to listen twice just to see that they, you know, they sounded like the same exact thing to me, just like two recordings of the same piece of music. Q. to the tracks? A. Q. A. I don't remember. Many times. What do you mean when you say Oh, first of all, one thing How many times did you listen

they were one and the same? that a lot of people don't know about drums is that there is no standardized drum tuning, as there is with a guitar. whatever. drummer. So, it's extremely unusual and perhaps impossible to have two different drum sets sound exactly the same unless they were tuned by the same drummer, the drums were made of the same material, recorded in the same room and so forth. Because I can tune my tom-tom one way, you can tune your tom-tom
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You tune a certain

string to G and certain string to an F, Drums are tuned, you know, entirely by the creative subjective choice of the

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MATTHEW RITTER

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MATTHEW RITTER and circled, I first of all broke down Aparthenonia and circled each and every musical element making up the piece of music. And was able to find an example of it somewhere in Bust Dat Groove. Q. In your opinion could any of the individual drum strikes in Aparthenonia come from anything other than Bust Dat Groove? A. not sure. Individual drum strikes? I am And the reason is because the sound For all I know, you

are exactly the same.

know, maybe there is a piece of equipment out there that can take that exact same sound and mimic it or something. But the sound that I hear in Aparthenonia are exactly the same sounds in Bust Dat Groove. So it is my opinion that the sound in Aparthenonia came from Bust Dat Groove because I have never known two drum sets to sound the same. Q. Sorry, I just want to try to You said for all you understand your answer.

know maybe there is a piece of equipment out there that can take the exact same sound and
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MATTHEW RITTER

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MATTHEW RITTER the analysis you performed to reach your conclusions in this case. Other than listening to the track Aparthenonia and Bust Dat Groove, you didn't perform any other kind of sound analysis of the track; did you? A. No, I didn't. I basically played it, listened to it, wrote down the various components and looked at them on paper side by side. Q. You didn't, for example, use any kind of computer analysis of either Bust Dat Groove or Aparthenonia; did you? A. Q. A. Q. No. So your analysis was done That's true, yes, it is. So there is no -- sorry, so

entirely by your listening ear; right?

there is no basis for your analysis other than listening to Bust Dat Groove and Aparthenonia; correct? MR. CHIN: A. Objection. I did my analysis by listening

countless times to the two tracks on various
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MATTHEW RITTER

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MATTHEW RITTER playback devices and writing down the various components and looking at them side by side. Q. transcription? A. Yeah, my own transcriptions to see like oh, yeah, there is that same figure, there it is again on that other page. Q. A. You can answer. A. My analysis was done completely by listening repeatedly on various playback machines, transcribing out the various elements and looking at the two transcriptions side by side to see what matched what. Q. A. Q. tracks. Your transcriptions were based Yes. I want to play for you some It is entirely on your listening to the tracks? So other than that you had no That is -MR. CHIN: Wait. Objection. other basis for your analysis; correct? When you say you looked at them side by side you're talking about your

I am going to play tracks from what

has been marked Defendants' Exhibit 27.

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MATTHEW RITTER called a frame. Q. One frame. Okay. So your opinion

regarding what Aparthenonia is, whether it is a copy or not is in part also based on your experience with sound editing equipment? A. that. thing. Not exactly. I would not say Listening to the two of them I just When I then had to answer the question

concluded from what I heard they were the same for myself well how are these rhythmic elements, how have they been juxtaposed, the answer was clear to me they had been juxtaposed in the very same way that I juxtaposed rhythms when I was producing my DVD. By editing down to a 30th of a second. Q. A. equipment. What kind of sound editing I personally didn't use the So I don't know, I was in the room I was saying Within

equipment have you used?

working with the sound editor.

can you take that and put it there. Q.

moments he was doing it, it was amazing. Have you ever heard of the computer software Propellerhead Reason?
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CERTIFICATE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK ) : ss. ) I, TAMMEY M. PASTOR, a Registered Professional Reporter, Certified LiveNote Reporter and Notary Public within and for the State of New York, do hereby certify: That MATTHEW RITTER the witness whose deposition is hereinbefore set forth, was duly sworn by me and that such deposition is a true record of the testimony given by the witness. I further certify that I am not related to any of the parties to this action by blood or marriage, and that I am in no way interested in the outcome of this matter. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this ____ day of ___________, 2006.

__________________________ TAMMEY M. PASTOR, RPR, CLR
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