Early in 2002, several electronic forums, including 313, dedicated to the discussion of techno, received a letter from a certain Dan Bell, aka DBX, the founder of 7th City Records in Detroit.

This letter, which I will not post in order to avoid legal action, revealed a bit of sour ham that apparently goes back a long way. Within, Bell writes that Josh Wink's upcoming release, named "Superfreak (Freak)", is a direct ripoff of his track "Phreak", released as DBX. Bell relates how Wink seems to have planned something like this for quite some time, continually copying the techniques he began using in tracks like Losing Control. He also tells the reader that Wink happens to be much more popular, and as such will receive credit for being "innovative" when it is Bell who deserves the credit.

The 313 list was up in arms after this letter, and so were other forums, such as the one on Submerge's website. A 313 subscriber posted to the list links to MP3 copies of both "Freak" and "Phreak" for comparison. The subscriber was immediately served with a cease and desist notice for copyright infringement from Ovum Records, Wink's record label. Additionally, Ovum threatened both Dan Bell and Submerge with defamation lawsuits, as Submerge had both the original letter and some nasty comments from their forum's users. Those comments were deleted.

In a later interview with Wink on TechnoTourist.org, he states that Bell's behavior is sour grapes about not being successful.

sakke says the problem is, DBX never sued wink. DBX just flamed wink publicly, although, i feel bad for dan. he should have taken the legal way. or perhaps just call wink and ask for being credited.
sakke says oh yeah and Wink really did use the filtering vocal method before Dan on How's the Music.

<mkb> hey, wait a second. "How's the Music" came out in 94. "Ghetto Trax" (with Phreak) came out in 93.