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Joe Satriani sues Coldplay over plagiarism.

ajblaise

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Guitarist accuses Coldplay of plagiarism

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rock guitarist Joe Satriani has sued British band Coldplay, accusing the Grammy-nominated stars of plagiarizing one of his songs.

Satriani's copyright infringement suit, filed on Thursday in Los Angeles federal court, claims the Coldplay song "Viva La Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental "If I Could Fly."

The 52-year-old guitar virtuoso is seeking a jury trial, damages and "any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.
Guitarist accuses Coldplay of plagiarism - Yahoo! News

[YOUTUBE="1ofFw9DKu_I"]Did Coldplay copy Joe Satriani?[/YOUTUBE]

I was amused by this. I really don't like Coldplay.
 

raz

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Wow. They do sound similar.

I love Joe! :X I used to be in a Team Fortress Classic clan named Joe Satriani. My name in the clan was [JS]RaspberryJamDelta-V
 

Gish

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They should reconcile and combine forces, it doesn't sound too bad when combined.
 

Tallulah

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Hah. It would be just like Coldplay to take the teeth out of anything they copied.

RIGHT!? Two of my good friends are Coldplay fans, and they were defending them this morning. In my opinion, it's pretty hard to deny. It would be different if it was some unsigned club act that claimed that Martin had come to one of his shows, but I think it's entirely possible that a group of musicians is familiar with Satriani. It's probably more a case of having a song in your head and not realizing you didn't write it--that's kind of the danger of writing melodies. Sometimes you don't know if it sounds good because you've come up with something brilliant, or if it sounds good because it sounds familiar--you've heard it before, but can't place it.
 

Tiltyred

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*HISS* The perfection of the Satch must not be contaminated by the wimpiness of Gwynnie's boyfriend's band, no no no.
 

StoryOfMyLife

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Wow...yeah that's pretty difficult to deny. The sounds [both songs, by the way, seriously!] are way too similar to say that it wasn't plagarized. I mean, stuff like this could happen without really realizing that it's been done, but hell you can't sit there and say they sound nothing alike. It's nearly identical...
 

GZA

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They sound the same, but really... if everyone sued everyone who had a song that sounded the same, the music industry would collapse. You know how they say there are only a dozen or so storylines in all of literature, and everything is a variation of one or several of these basic storylines? I think music is the same, except there are more than a dozen things. But pretty much all songs are some kind of combination and interpretation of only so many progressions and melodies.

But let the law do it's thang, I guess. Maybe Satch needs to pay off his insurance debt or something, I don't know.
 

Tallulah

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They sound the same, but really... if everyone sued everyone who had a song that sounded the same, the music industry would collapse. You know how they say there are only a dozen or so storylines in all of literature, and everything is a variation of one or several of these basic storylines? I think music is the same, except there are more than a dozen things. But pretty much all songs are some kind of combination and interpretation of only so many progressions and melodies.

But let the law do it's thang, I guess. Maybe Satch needs to pay off his insurance debt or something, I don't know.

Yeah, but that was REAAAAAAAALLY the same. Same notes, same timing/phrasing, etc. Same longer notes in the chorus. That would have to be one heck of a coincidence.
 

ajblaise

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I was talking to a friend today and he said in an interview Coldplay admitted to taking songs they like and trying to make them better and taking them for their own.

If they really said that and are upfront about it, I suppose that makes it less lame, but not by much.
 

Kasper

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I love Satriani, no wonder I thought the riff in Coldplay's song was cool. At least they swipe good stuff.
 

kyuuei

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:rofl1: at the Dave Matthews thing.

I heard about this on the radio. I thought at first, Oh well they sound similar.. but it does sound horribly precise. Even if it wasn't intentional, which I doubt seeing coldplay's track record, they should own up to the mistake.
 

speculative

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I thought Coldplay was Dave Matthews for two years.

Someone owes Dave Matthews Band an apology!

I could see how two songs could be very similar by coincidence. In this case, it seems extremely unlikely however.
 

Jack Flak

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