Musical Plagiarism

In addition to focusing on the Shepard Fairey dispute and law suits, I've explored other areas of plagiarism in the arts. The music industry has many situations of plagiarizing and appropriating.


Successful Suits

_One of the more recent and startling cases, one that has remained below the radar, is where, in 2007, music publishers BMG and Universal settled out of court with Worcestershire-based songwriter Clive Edwards. Mr Edwards had formally charged S Club 7’s songwriters (Simon Ellis and Shep Solomon – NB it is not known exactly which songwriter was charged) with plagiarising his original song in order to create “Don’t Stop Movin’”. The action was halted just days before the hearing in May 2007 and, although neither party has disclosed details of the settlement, it is believed within the industry to involve very substantial sums.

_George Harrison was successfully sued in a prolonged suit that began in 1971 for plagiarizing the Chiffons' "He's So Fine" for the melody of his own "My Sweet Lord."

_In autumn 1984 and throughout 1985, Huey Lewis successfully sued Ray Parker, Jr. for plagiarism, citing that Parker stole the melody of the song "Ghostbusters" (the theme from the movie of the same name), from Lewis's 1983 song "I Want A New Drug". Lewis had been approached to compose the main theme song for the "Ghostbusters" movie, but had declined due to his work on the soundtrack for Back to the Future. It was reported in 2001 that Lewis allegedly breached an agreement not to mention the original suit, doing so on VH1's Behind the Music.

_In early 2007, Timbaland was alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song "Do It" on the 2006 album Loose by Nelly Furtado without giving credit or compensation.

_In early 2006, the writers of Lee Hyori's song "Get Ya" were accused of plagiarizing Britney Spears' 2005 song "Do Somethin'". This eventually led Lee Hyori to stop promoting the song and contributed to the failure of the song and its album, Dark Angel.

_In 2005, Belgian songwriter Salvatore Acquaviva won a judgment against Madonna, claiming that her 1998 hit, "Frozen" had been lifted from his early-80s song, "Ma View Fout L'camp". The judge declined to award damages, but did order the withdrawal of all remaining discs for sale and barred the song from airplay on Belgian TV and radio.



Unsuccessful suits

_During the mid-1930s, Ira Arnstein became convinced that major pop songwriters had been illegally copying his work. During 1936-46 he brought forth five plagiarism lawsuits though none proved successful.

_In 1994 John Fogerty was sued for self plagiarism after leaving Fantasy Records and pursuing a solo career with Warner Brothers. Fantasy still owned the rights to the Creedence Clearwater library and sound. Saul Zaentz, the owner of Fantasy, claimed Fogerty's song "Old Man Down the Road" was a musical copy of the Creedence song "Run Through the Jungle". The court made a precedence-setting decision when it ruled that an artist cannot plagiarize himself.

_In 1993 Killing Joke sued Nirvana alleging that the riff for the latter's song "Come as You Are" was copied from the riff for their song "Eighties". The lawsuit was dropped after the sudden death of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

_In 2003 Cottrill claimed that Britney Spears’s "Can’t Make You Love Me" also misappropriated substantial melodic material from their "What You See is What You Get". The court was skeptical on the question of defendant’s access to the plaintiff’s work.

_Ronald H. Selle, sued the Bee Gees, alleging their 1977 hit, "How Deep Is Your Love", stole the melody of his own never-released 1975 song, "Let It End". The Bee Gees eventually prevailed after an appeal.




Unsettled, alleged, forgiven

The following are accusations of plagiarism appearing in notable media:

_A lawsuit filed by 70s pop band Rubinoos alleges Avril Lavigne stole one of their songs and reworked it into her bestselling single "Girlfriend".

_A portion of the Bruce Springsteen single, "Radio Nowhere." sounds similar to Tommy Tutone's 1982 hit, "867-5309/Jenny." Tommy Heath's response was "I'm really honored at a similarity, if any, I think there's too much suing in the world now"

_The New York Post reported remarkable similarities between the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California" and Tom Petty's "Mary Jane’s Last Dance" could turn into a lawsuit. Petty responded in a Rolling Stone interview:

...a lot of RocknRoll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took "American Girl" [for their song "Last Nite"], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, "OK, good for you." It doesn’t bother me.

_In the hollywood industry, accusations of plagiarism are so high that several websites exist solely to archive public accusations, of which very few receive legal attention.

_In December 2008, American guitarist Joe Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay, claiming that "Viva la Vida" incorporates "substantial original portions" of his instrumental track "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album Is There Love in Space?. The band has denied the allegation. Coldplay was also briefly accused of copying portions of the song from "The Songs I Didn't Write" by American alternative band Creaky Boards. Creaky Boards later retracted the accusations and speculated that both songs may have been inspired by the video game The Legend of Zelda.

As I continue my research, I am realizing that plagiarism and appropriation are very big in "the arts". Whether it's performing artists, or visual artists, its around us every day. People tend to make it a bigger deal to the visual artists rather than the performing artists. I was out one night and Britney Spears' version of "I love rock & roll" came on, and someone next to me thought that was the one and only version of that song. Granted, that person wasn't playing with a full deck, but that is Obviously an appropriated version of the original that was written in 1975 by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of The Arrows. The song was later covered by Joan Jett and Britney Spears, who both had international chart success with their versions of the song. Hmm..