Isn't he just sampling?

Depends if the original artist was credited and paid. If not then he is simply stealing.

Yeah, what farhad said.

"Tell the people!" <- upvote
So is there a lawsuit coming or what?

Don't want to burst bubbles, but the artist being theived from most likely does not have the time, patience, or money to defend a lawsuit against Geffen Records (and their bevy of copyright attorneys). I'd love to be proven wrong, though.

Not like this is the first time this has ever happend, although this is almost a remix, its so entirely based on the earlier song...

... I'm somewhat saddened because Timbaland was an inovative producer who contributed very much to driving hip-hop and rnb into more complicated and interesting places. (I remember the Basement Jaxx having a huge man-crush on him.) I bet the original composer would have been ecstatic to just get flown out to Timbaland's studio, maybe taken to dinner or a party, and given like 2grand in compensation.

Both beats are minor variations of a standard guitar strumming pattern so it's not at all surprising you can make them fit perfectly together. Mainstream music uses just a few standard beat/chord patterns, and you can find many more examples of such "stealing", like
http://www.videosift.com/video/A-Brief-History-of-Pop-Music-in-Four-Chords and
http://www.videosift.com/video/The-Pachelbel-Rant-Never-look-at-the-Canon-in-D-the-same

being an tracker composer for many years, participating in demoscene since 98 and really loving the original tune since first listen, want to say that it's equal to rape or something.

timbaland: respect -75%