Saturday, December 6, 2008 10:32 AM EST
The Associated Press



LOS ANGELES (AP) — A noted guitarist has sued members of Coldplay, claiming the band's smash hit "Viva La Vida" copied parts of one of his songs.

The copyright infringement lawsuit by Joe Satriani was filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles.

The 52-year-old claims Coldplay copied "substantial, original portions" of his 2004 song, "If I Could Fly." The Coldplay hit, which was nominated for a Grammy this week, has topped charts around the world and been used to sell iPods in commercials.

Representatives for the band and their label, Capitol Records, did not return calls seeking comment on Friday.

Satriani wants a federal judge to order an accounting so he can determine how much money he may be owed, or else stop using the song.



Have you guys heard this, it's one thing to steal a chord or two but they pirated to whole melody! HACKS can't write their own music or what! Shheeeeeesh!

The fact that Coldplay did not immediately deny the allegations says it all. Sure, all musicians borrow bits and pieces, but outright plagiarism happens more than what we hear about, especially in popular culture like music and movies.

Go Joe. In a world where intellectual and artistic rights have been so diluted and made nearly unenforceable per internet access/distribution, it's good to know some folks are paying attention.

The real dog is the peer to peer file swapping technologies that make bootlegging media so easy. Considering it ran totally unchecked for so long it's no surprise that so called new age artists have never developed as much new stuff as their predecessors. That's why so much of the new music coming out today sounds like something that happened already.

Gustav on KNRK mentioned this story and said that their website allowed you to hear both tracks and make your own call. I will do that after I post this. But before I do, I'm going to note a couple things that I am seeing within some bands that are popular right now;

I'm noticing that there is a little bit of a sea change going on right now. It permeates not only music, but politics and society and laws and legal things and so on; People are sick and tired of being told how to feel and think. Political pundits who were overtly trying to shape outcomes and " facts " were proven severely wrong on predictions - especially early on in the primaries. Politicians themselves crammed down our collective throats that if you say something often enough, it becomes true. That proved to be false to a degree that has been awesome to see exposed. Economists thought they were so fucking smart in predicting what would happen if X or Y was in place. And that collective " sheeple " effect has been spilling over to music like no other time I can recall.

There is an odd backlash that has taken place. In the absence of the ability to recognize quality, certain bands have been given an inordinate amount of attention. The Killers are a great example of this. They have been given the spotlight purely because there is a vacuum of talent right now. Everyone is looking to break the new big thing. Now, it's as if everyone is waking up and saying " The Killers? I thought I liked them. But the more I listen to them, the more I realize that they are terrible. And their fanbase is shrinking super fast."

Coldplay, in my opinion, is a terribly overrated band. They are worth a listen. But then that's it. They are not the next heir to anything. If they really did what they are accused of, this could come at a crippling time for themselves. And in this era of exposing frauds, it couldn't happen to a better band.

No more resting on laurels. No more critics telling us what is good. No more radio pretending that just because they play an artist in heavy rotation, that makes the quality level be " up."

Styles and empty facades are getting knocked down. I, for one, love it

Half the Royalties should go to Joe since Colplay riped him off!

Here is the Link for what CJ mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

Dude.

Ouch! Coldplay is toast. No wonder they haven't had a comment.

In 1989, Roy Orbison took 2 Live Crew to the Supreme Court for their sampling of the baseline from his song, "Oh, Pretty Woman". The supreme court in the case, Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., expanded the doctrine of fair use and extended its protections to parodies created for profit. It is considered a seminal fair use decision. Vanilla Ice since cited the case to shield himself from litigation against Queen and David Bowie his use of samplings from "Under Pressure". Joe will not get a $..

Buns, I don't believe any of what you cited applies here. Sampling is a wholly different violation. There is no sampling going on here.

Pirates in bygone days used to be hanged! Plain and simple piracy in this case if you ask me! These hacks used someone elses work and put their name on it! They rank right up there with Milli Vanilli.