Satriani Sues Coldplay

[withahip]

http://www.spinner.com/2008/12/05/joe-s ... -coldplay/

This will make the Coldplay haters happy. I didn't know Satriani actually had melodies in his music.

[black francis]

They deserve each other.

[Mr. Brian]

It is very similar but do you think all bands do that on purpose? I'll bet this happens all the time but no one takes the time to notice unless it is someone huge like Coldplay. It just doesn't make sense for someone like Martin to rip off another huge star's song on purpose.

It seems to me that melodies get in songwriters heads and they just go from there not knowing if they heard something years ago and it's just bubbling up. So it's basically subconscious plagiarism I suppose.

I dabble in songwriting and it has happened a few times that I thought I came up with an original melody and it turned out it was some Cure song or even a commercial jingle from my youth. In one case I wrote a song that was the music/chord progression exactly for "Take The Skinheads Bowling" by Camper Van Beethoven with different lyrics and melody but at the time I had never even heard that song. Maybe I'd heard it and didn't remember but when someone pointed it out it was a big surprise to me.

I know when McCartney came up with "Yesterday" it came so easily he was convinced it was something like that and walked around for days asking people if it sounded familiar. That one turned out to be ok but add this to the fact that rock music in general only has so many combinations of notes and sticks to the same sorts of chord progressions. It's bound to happen accidentally from time to time.

Should Satriani win a lawsuit? I think it's more complicated than that and I'm sure there are all kinds of technicalities that have to be proven and it can't just be "well thats very close so thats good enough".

I think The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" and George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" are two famous cases that should not have turned out the way they did. They are very different circumstances with Harrison's being in the subconscious category most likely and The Verve's being a sample of a cover of a Stones song that no one cared about. Fair use I'd say since it was pretty much indistinguishable from the original Stones version.
Two cases I know of that deserved to lose: Led Zeppelin deliberately ripped off Howlin' Wolf (Page admits they did this but Plant never bothered to change the lyrics like they agreed, which would have got them off the hook in the long run) and Vanilla Ice or a producer at least deliberately ripped off David Bowie/Queen's with Under Pressure's bass riff which was the centerpiece of both of their songs.

[fat cherry]

and The Verve's being a sample of a cover of a Stones song that no one cared about. Fair use I'd say since it was pretty much indistinguishable from the original Stones version.

apart from Alan Klein, a lawyer (or something) who happened to own it. Sure I've read they even had a licensing agreement but klein decided they'd used too much and so sued and won. Wasn't the stones version of the song (the andrew loog oldham orchestra) but he still owned it. Tough one I suppose.

Haven't been in a band since school but I remember saying to the singer bloke - who used to give us his words of wisdom for me and the others to work into a song - did you know the words to [insert name of long forgotten song] fit really well to Time (the floyd song). Yes he says, thats what I wrote them to. Obviously by the time we'd mangled them noone was any the wiser - certainly not the chart buying public who never had to worry about such things.

C.

[Mr. Brian]

I'm sure young bands like the band down the street or a newly formed Led Zeppelin might rip off other songs on purpose all the time. I think you always "borrow" lines and ideas when you get started. It would not surprise me too much to find out that something on Parachutes like Yellow was directly lifted from another song or was originally and then became something else entirely. I just don't think established people like Coldplay would do it deliberately at this point. They would have so much to lose now especially by doing it to someone like Satriani who also has a huge fan base. Someone is bound to notice.

I'll bet if you scrutinized every Bunnymen song or even just the big ones, there are bound to be close similarities to the bands that Will, Ian, Les or Pete listened to that influenced them or even contemporaries of the time.

[Frank The Bunny]

I'll bet if you scrutinized every Bunnymen song or even just the big ones, there are bound to be close similarities to the bands that Will, Ian, Les or Pete listened to that influenced them or even contemporaries of the time.

For example, "Read it in Books" sounds just like this song called "Books" by the Teardrop Explodes. Coincidence? I think not.

What about self-infringement?
Mac has lifted lines from his own songs time and time again.

Anybody remember the curious case where John Fogerty was sued for copying himself?

"The Old Man Down The Road", a Fogerty solo track, was said to be too much like the CCR track "Run Through The Jungle", which he wrote and performed as a member of that band. A company that had purchased the rights to the CCR catalogue sued Fogerty for copyright infringement. The court ultimately found in favor of Fogerty.

[fat cherry]

I'm sure young bands like the band down the street or a newly formed Led Zeppelin might rip off other songs on purpose all the time. I think you always "borrow" lines and ideas when you get started.

you're right. There's a lennon, or possible macca quote about strarting a song trying to be a bit like something they liked and ending up like the beatles. Or something (which is obviously a harrison song, but you get my drift).

[Mr. Brian]

Anybody remember the curious case where John Fogerty was sued for copying himself?

"The Old Man Down The Road", a Fogerty solo track, was said to be too much like the CCR track "Run Through The Jungle", which he wrote and performed as a member of that band. A company that had purchased the rights to the CCR catalogue sued Fogerty for copyright infringement. The court ultimately found in favor of Fogerty.

I remember that Fogerty thing. What a sham and an obvious grab for money rather than what plagiarism laws are for which is to protect artists work.