Joe Satriani Sues Coldplay for Plagiarism

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

A settlement whereby money is given to a Plaintiff with far fewer resources than the defendant is virtually always a concession by the defendant that there's a damn good chance that they lose this one. This is simply a reality of civil jurisprudence.

In this case, I think there's far more involved, especially given Coldplay's stature as a "Megaband". If they had lost in court (which I still say was less than a 10% chance), they go down in the court of public opinion as copycats. It definitely would hurt their standing.

By settling, they avoid any embarrassing blurbs or an extremely embarrassing outcome. With a settlement, it just goes away...

Seriously, have you seen anything on 'net or the news other than the link I provided?

[Time's Yours]

"Substantial similarity exists when the relevant aspects of the accused work are so similar to the relevant aspects of the copyrighted work that an ordinary, reasonable person would conclude that the defendant took material of substance and value from the copyrighted work and unlawfully appropriated it."

http://www.scottandscottllp.com/main...y.aspx?id=1632

Like I said, ordinary person...

[Time's Yours]

Funny, we just studied this in my Entertainment Law course at my law school. The general consensus was that ColdPlay likely would have lost. The standard for the jury is whether the songs sound substantially similar to an ordinary listener.

If George Harrison lost in court b/c "My Sweet Lord" was too close to "He's so Fine" by the Chiffons, I think you've gotta say Satriani had a good case here.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by phillip

Funny, we just studied this in my Entertainment Law course at my law school. The general consensus was that ColdPlay likely would have lost. The standard for the jury is whether the songs sound substantially similar to an ordinary listener.

If George Harrison lost in court b/c "My Sweet Lord" was too close to "He's so Fine" by the Chiffons, I think you've gotta say Satriani had a good case here.

Read this thread alone and you'll get a hell of a lot better breakdown of it than that. It's significantly more complicated than the songs sounding substantially similar. Further, I can't for the life of me figure out how an "ordinary listener" standard would be applicable here. "Ordinary person" standards generally only apply in cases of alleged unintentional malfeasance.

It's a matter of the jury believing that the songs are so similar sounding that Coldplay must have lifted it from Satriani. It's not an 'ordinary person' standard - each juror substitutes their own respective judgment. This case requires a finding of intentional wrongdoing, so the judgments/actions of an ordinary person here are immaterial.

I'm...uh...unimpressed by your entertainment law class.

[Time's Yours]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Read this thread alone and you'll get a hell of a lot better breakdown of it than that. It's significantly more complicated than the songs sounding substantially similar. Further, I can't for the life of me figure out how an "ordinary listener" standard would be applicable here. "Ordinary person" standards generally only apply in cases of alleged unintentional malfeasance.

It's a matter of the jury believing that the songs are so similar sounding that Coldplay must have lifted it from Satriani. It's not an 'ordinary person' standard - each juror substitutes their own respective judgment. This case requires a finding of intentional wrongdoing, so the judgments/actions of an ordinary person here are immaterial.

I'm...uh...unimpressed by your entertainment law class.

Copyright violation doesn't have to be intentional wrongdoing. It can be subconscious. Look up Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs.

I wasn't trying to be comprehensive, just trying to make a quick point.

I don't think my class is a problem. I have a very experienced professor at a top 25 law school.

Edit - From that case:
"What happened? I conclude that the composer,12 in
seeking musical materials to clothe his thoughts, was
working with various possibilities. As he tried this
possibility and that, there came to the surface of his
mind a particular combination that pleased him as
being one he felt would be appealing to a prospective
listener; in other words, that this combination of
sounds would work. Why? Because his subconscious
knew it already had worked in a song his conscious
mind did not remember. Having arrived at this
pleasing combination of sounds, the recording was
made, the lead sheet prepared for copyright and the
song became an enormous success. Did Harrison
deliberately use the music of He’s So Fine? I do not
believe he did so deliberately. Nevertheless, it is clear
that My Sweet Lord is the very same song as He’s So
Fine with different words,13 and Harrison had access
to He’s So Fine. This is, under the law, infringement
of copyright, and is no less so even though
subconsciously accomplished."

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by phillip

Funny, we just studied this in my Entertainment Law course at my law school. The general consensus was that ColdPlay likely would have lost. The standard for the jury is whether the songs sound substantially similar to an ordinary listener.

If George Harrison lost in court b/c "My Sweet Lord" was too close to "He's so Fine" by the Chiffons, I think you've gotta say Satriani had a good case here.

Case Law in regards to copyright infringement has come a long, long way since the late 60's and early 70's. With all of the music that's been recorded over the past 40 years worldwide, it's extremely difficult to prove infringement.

There's only 12 notes and millions of songs since then.

[Mile High Mania]

[Baby Lee]

Is it just me, of does the instrumental/backing of this song sound A LOT like another pre-existing song? At the very least the chord progression.



For those who can't place what I'm talking about.

Spoiler!

[Imon Yourside]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Is it just me, of does the instrumental/backing of this song sound A LOT like another pre-existing song? At the very least the chord progression.



For those who can't place what I'm talking about.

Spoiler!

This Monkeys gone to heaven.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by KILLER_CLOWN

This Monkeys gone to heaven.

Right band and album, wrong song.

[Imon Yourside]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Right band and album, wrong song.

Yes I know, the only song I can remember currently from them though.

[DaveNull]

I'd agree. It came to mind before I clicked the spoiler link to see what you were thinking.

[Valiant]

Umm



Happens all the time..

Someone did a study breaking down all the big hit songs, Like seven formulas, follow this and you get people loving them from what I remember reading..