Coldplay Sued For Plagiarism

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.

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Comments

[HighwayB]

If Coldplay owes Satriani, then Satriani owes these guys (check about 35 seconds in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI

And, for those who care, here's an interesting little demo of why you can't copyright a chord progression
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OP7F8P1ZtD0

Satriani is out of luck. This case has no merit.

[Pullyblank]

Those aren't all the same chord progressions.

Check out the George Harrison, My Sweet Lord/He's so fine. settlement.
Or the Stones vs the Verve. Those two weren't nearly as close as this is.

[HighwayB]

I'm only talking about melodic fragments of the first clip. Chord progressions aren't subject to copyright.

And, as I pointed out earlier, the chord progressions of the Satriani and Coldplay are actually a little different (a ii7 in the Satriani instead of the IV in the Coldplay).

I'm familiar with the other two cases.

The Verve involved disputes over a sampling license. Not the same.

The Harrison case involved a much lengthier portion of a song being very similar.

anyway, see my other comments on this thread if you are interested.

[MorpheusXNYC]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

But look, there are numerous bands that have songs with very similar chord progressions and melody snippets.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Enanitos Verdes - Frances Limon
Creaky Boards - The Songs I didn't Write
Kapluckus - We Left The Atmosphere
Joe Satriani - If I Could Fly

The point I've made in other posts over and over is that the melody is not so unique that it wouldn't occur to other people as well, so stop this B.S. claim about plagiarism, Satriani and go back to being the Kenny G of guitar...

[eggman]

The songs sure are similar--not only chords and melody, which isn't that surprising, but even the exact tempo and key, which is a pretty weird coincidence. But with plagiarism you have to show the accused was familiar with the original work. Satriani's song was buried on a 2004 album that did not sell a lot of copies. It's likely that Coldplay never heard the song.

They should probably settle this out of court. If I was the judge my ruling would be that neither song can be played on the radio for the rest of eternity. Not because of plagiarism, just for teh greater good of society.

[HighwayB]

One more time...
The video uses digital pitch and time shifting to line the songs up perfectly. The songs are not the same tempo or in the same key. And, once you move past the few seconds represented here, the tunes are very, very different.

Even if they were the same tempo and in the same key, there's still no case here.

[Raleigh Dave]

I reckon Coldplay will be out a lot of money.

[HighwayB]

In previous posts I said it was the same chord progression. Well, almost. I couldn't hear the bass notes of the Satriani tune on my little laptop speakers.
Here's the basic outline
Satriani is ii-V-I-vi
Coldplay is IV-V-I-vi

I still think Satriani has no case.

Feel free to click my screen name to see the other comments.

[rekk]

Ridiculous. Listening for the bass line out of your laptop speakers? What kind of notation system is that? As far as plagiarism goes, same chord progression, same melody - very uncanny. If anything, Coldplay probably had a ghostwriter who knew Satriani. They're probably PISSED with him/her! Just watch, will be settled out of court.

[HighwayB]

Well, you go to war with the speakers you have---not the speakers you might want or wish to have at a later time...

I never said it wasn't ridiculous...laptop speakers always are. That's why I corrected myself as soon as I got to some better speakers and listened more closely. Still, both chords have the same theoretical function as a predominant. Easy mistake, even when you can hear the bass notes.

And, if Satriani settles this out of court, it means he doesn't believe he has a solid case. The fact is, he doesn't have any case

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G57CgtX-BsI (35 seconds in) That's the 3 note motive that Satriani is so upset about, as far as I can tell.

[JimR]

Same chord progression, same melody, same tempo... I think Joe's got a point.

[AnHonestAnswer]

Ah, yes. Coldplay sucks!

Thank you.

[Yarrr]

Actually this is like the only Coldplay song I actually like, lol. It's got some good orchestration, and the production is excellent. If only producers would lay of the god d@mned pitch correction.

[LeaveArtieAlone]

HAHA me too! I also truly dig Satriani's music!

[arspar183]

i remember reading in the 70s that because there are only 8 or so chords on the guitar, there are a limited number of combinations before you run out of new ones. like creating a new area code for the same city because they run out of phone numbers.

[JimR]

Well, there are technically there a limited number of combinations, though it is a very large number (there are a LOT more than 8 chords, by the way). Many pop and rock songs tend to have the same chord progressions, but can have different rhythms and be played with different sounds, etc.

[rekk]

And, more importantly, different MELODIES over the same chord progressions. It is very strange that Coldplay has the same melody.

[NKR]

There are 8 major chords (A B C D E F G), but there are literally thousands of chords of all types...minors, dominant 7th, major 7ths, minor 7ths, etc. Although the same chord types and keys (a few chords that go together well) are used again and again in certain musical styles. But that doesn't explain the extreme similarity. I think the question is whether the songwriter(s) in Coldplay did it consciously and knowingly, or whether they had heard the song once a while ago and it came out when they were writing, without knowing it was Satriani.

[AnotherToerag]

Both songs are great and I don't think they're similar enough to hold up in a lawsuit for Satriani. If Coldplay did lift the song from Satriani, they should take the high road, make an announcement about it and make a settlement. It's not like Coldplay (or Satriani for that matter) are hurting financially...

[indianadem]

Don't you all remember the lawsuit between Vanilla Ice and David Bowie (I think it was David Bowie). Sounding similar doesn't cut it. That lawsuit was lost (by David Bowie) because the bass line that he claimed he took had one note changed. I think this will get thrown out too....it's not the same. Similar is not the same. Actually I just went on line and checked and David Bowie/Queen didn't lose....it was settled out of court. So who knows!

[JJI]

That's not what happened at all. They settled out of court.

[Antacid]

I believe that X is true... oh wait, actually the opposite of X is true. Great post, mate.

[Yarrr]

I heard about this on the radio this morning. It seems too similar to be coincidence. It's one thing to sound similar, but this more or less has the same melody, chords, and tempo.

[JohnShank]

I agree Yarrr... When I heard it, I thought I was hearing an instrumental version of Viva la Vida. It's too close to be a coincidence.

[StevenevetS]

Normally, I am very slow to buy into the "This guy stole my song" thing. But when the key signature, chord progression, melody, tempo and rhythm all match up, I think that Joe S. is right. Coldplay swiped his song.

[HighwayB]

The Coldplay song has been altered for this video. It's tempo and pitch have been digitally "shifted" in order to line the two songs up perfectly.

Oh, and while those three notes match, the other notes don't. Listen carefully. The chord progressions are the same, but chord progressions can't be copyrighted. That same chord progression has been used for hundreds of years in both classical and popular music.

[Yarrr]

I listened to the offical song on Youtube and it sounds exactly the same.

I agree that all the factors taken by themselves don't mean anything, but it seems very odd when all taken together.

[hodco]

Coldplay sucks no matter what. They should have been sued years ago.

[JohnShank]

I agree hodco. They SHOULD have been sued years ago. If for nothing else than the lead singer marrying that self-important id iot Gwyneth Paltrow.

[JimR]

Coldplay only has about 3 songs, which they keep renaming and passing off as new material.

[frictionlessmatter3]

DIdn't this singer lift his tune from a Nintendo video game?

[naturethings]

Its shocking all the people posting on here posting that Joe Satriani doesn't deserve his dues. Especially when he has been working in the industry, without the limelight, the viral campaigns, and the mass media ads. This guy is the definition of a hard working musician, happy with his relationship in the world. Don't put it past the music industry, and Coldplay, who desperately need the money and the inspiration to fuel their bubble gum fame and unsustainable lifestyles, to take a little too much from the cany jar/

Go Joe!.

[newdreams]

Exactly. Joe has every right to stand up for his song - HIS property. Just hope he's got good attorneys, because ironically Coldplay has bottomless pockets because of this song.

If my opinion of Coldplay wasn't already at the bottom, it would be heading there at the speed of light..lol

[MTGradwell]

I think all the people talking about "similar chord progressions" or "unintended influence" are missing an important point.

You can listen to a hundred different versions of the **exact same song**, and each one will be distinctly different from all the others. Same words, same chord progressions, a hundred different styles. Even where there has been enormous effort made to copy the style of an original, e.g. in the case of a karaoke backing track, you can tell the difference. The only case I can think of where different renditions of the same song might be broadly similar is "happy birthday", because a) it is usually not accompanied by instruments, and b) it is usually sung impromptu by a cacophony of different voices that just happen to have been thrown together by chance. Even with this song, there are renditions such as Marilyn Monroe's, where you won't get something similar except as the result of a conscious effort to emulate.

Even if you're using a basic Casio where every sound is pre-programmed, and the track you're "unconsciously emulating" uses the exact same instrument make and model and just one of the instrument sounds that it can produce, the odds are still hundreds to one against you choosing the exact same instrument sound by chance, because nowadays even "toy" keyboards can produce hundreds of distinct instrument sounds.. With "real" instruments the range of possible sounds is greater, so the chance of an unintended match is correspondingly smaller.