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OT: Coldplay sued by Joe Satriani

fruvai

By fruvai
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SteinbergerHack Grand Master

SteinbergerHack

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god this satriani guy is a douche and a half. it really doesn't get any more pathetic than suing over something like that



Imagine you had spent a ton of money producing a song, intending to make a living from it. Now, assume you hear somebody else making a ton of money on the song YOU wrote. To top it off, assume that they released their album well after you did, and have a history of "borrowing" material.

Do you really think that you wouldn't get hacked off?

Keep in mind that these are people who do this for a full-time living, not just basement/garage hackers or weekend warriors. For them, it's serious business.

FWIW, I've been in patent disputes before - they're an awful lot like copyright infringement. Take my word for it - there is nothing more infuriating than having someone steal your invention (several years' worth of serious effort and investment), then sell against you in the market.:mad:

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Lou Speed Newbie

Lou Speed

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Imagine you had spent a ton of money producing a song, intending to make a living from it. Now, assume you hear somebody else making a ton of money on the song YOU wrote. To top it off, assume that they released their album well after you did, and have a history of "borrowing" material.


Do you really think that you wouldn't get hacked off?


Keep in mind that these are people who do this for a full-time living, not just basement/garage hackers or weekend warriors. For them, it's serious business.


FWIW, I've been in patent disputes before - they're an awful lot like copyright infringement. Take my word for it - there is nothing more infuriating than having someone steal your invention (several years' worth of serious effort and investment), then sell against you in the market.
:mad:



here's the thing, someone most likely used this way before Satriani did.

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onyxrhino Newbie

onyxrhino

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Imagine you had spent a ton of money producing a song, intending to make a living from it. Now, assume you hear somebody else making a ton of money on the song YOU wrote. To top it off, assume that they released their album well after you did, and have a history of "borrowing" material.


Do you really think that you wouldn't get hacked off?


Keep in mind that these are people who do this for a full-time living, not just basement/garage hackers or weekend warriors. For them, it's serious business.


FWIW, I've been in patent disputes before - they're an awful lot like copyright infringement. Take my word for it - there is nothing more infuriating than having someone steal your invention (several years' worth of serious effort and investment), then sell against you in the market.
:mad:



Satriani wasn't going to make a penny more for this song if Coldplay hadn't released Viva La Vida. As it stands now, he'll certainly make a few extra royalties simply due to this publicity.

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SteinbergerHack Grand Master

SteinbergerHack

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here's the thing, someone most likely used this way before Satriani did.

 

 

1) You would have to prove this allegation.

 

2) Would this mean that both Satch and Coldplay are infringing, or merely that Satch's copyright is declared invalid? If the second holds, then it could be argued that no ownership rights could be ascribed to either song......and that's a slippery slope to start going down.

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SteinbergerHack Grand Master

SteinbergerHack

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Satriani wasn't going to make a penny more for this song if Coldplay hadn't released Viva La Vida. As it stands now, he'll certainly make a few extra royalties simply due to this publicity.

 

 

That's really not the point, is it? It's a matter of someone publicly claiming authorship of another person's work.

 

If you have never personally been infringed on in a matter of IP, you probably don't understand why it's such a big deal.

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Lou Speed Newbie

Lou Speed

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1) You would have to prove this allegation.


2) Would this mean that both Satch and Coldplay are infringing?

 

 

1) give it time. Like others have said it was probably written by someone like Bach or something.

 

2) as I said in another thread, "there's nothing new under the sun".

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onyxrhino Newbie

onyxrhino

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That's really not the point, is it? It's a matter of someone publicly claiming authorship of another person's work.


If you have never personally been infringed on in a matter of IP, you probably don't understand why it's such a big deal.

 

 

First of all, I was responding to your "Imagine if you recorded a song, you expected to make you money to live on" scenario above. So that was the point. Satriani is probably tickled pink to get his name out there in association with a popular band.

 

Secondly, I don't think this constitutes copyright infringement. It's a coincidence that's not that unexpected. Both melodies are pretty conventional.

 

Finally, do you really think Coldplay set out to "claim authorship" of Joe Satriani's work? Seriously?

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bayliss Newbie

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i can't really see chris martin sitting around with gwen, jamming out to a joe satriani record. if anyone in coldplay has ever listen to even one of his songs, i'd be completely surprised.

things like this happen. there's only so many notes. it think, as a musician, the lawsuit is in really bad taste by joe.

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Lou Speed Newbie

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If the second holds, then it could be argued that no ownership rights could be ascribed to either song......and that's a slippery slope to start going down.

 

 

Did Coldplay supposedly steal the whole song or just a small part of it? I'm not really familiar with either artist or song.

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SteinbergerHack Grand Master

SteinbergerHack

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Oh gimme a break. I can think of dozens of songs that sound strikingly similar to other songs that came out long before they did and as far as I know no one got the lawyers involved.

 

 

There are also a bunch that have had successful lawsuits. Remember Vanilla Ice? He paid off a bunch to Queen over "Ice, Ice, Baby", which was a blatant rip-off of "Under Pressure". There was also a major lawsuit between Huey Lewis and Ray Parker, Jr, over the uncanny similarity between "I Want a New Drug" and "Ghost Busters"; supposely under confidentiality, but Lewis has said that they "bought" the song after the fact...(and he is now being sued for saying that in public and violating the confidentiality terms)

 

Two guys I used to play with also successfully sued a very famous Nashville country act over a song that ended up making a decent amount of money - you've never heard of that lawsuit, because they weren't famous enough to make the front pages....but they still won. You can bet that they were not the first, and they won't be the last. Material DOES get stolen in this business, and the laws are there for a reason. That's not to say that every similar song pairing is legitimately theft, but some are.

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gschmittling Newbie

gschmittling

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i haven't heard a song that uses that melody before... to suggest bach probably wrote it before is hilarious. the fact that you're trying to say "it's so conventional" but one of the greatest composers wrote it, is ridiculous. but whatever. i think it's dumb, but i can't blame him for going for it. he's not as big as coldplay and they have a song that uses the same progression and melody as his. why wouldn't you go for it?

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SteinbergerHack Grand Master

SteinbergerHack

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First of all, I was responding to your "Imagine if you recorded a song, you expected to make you money to live on" scenario above. So that was the point. Satriani is probably tickled pink to get his name out there in association with a popular band.

 

 

That may or may not be true. Satch has his own fairly substantial audience, and few if any of their fans overlap.

 

 

Secondly, I don't think this constitutes copyright infringement. It's a coincidence that's not that unexpected. Both melodies are pretty conventional.

 

 

Now, admittedly I'm making some assumptions, but I'd bet that there is some evidence that Coldplay didn't come up with the song in a vacuum. There could be links between recording engineers, the producer, side musicians, etc., or it could be that somebody in Coldplay brought in a copy of Satch's album to listen to while they were recording their album. Somehow I doubt that Satch's label would allow there to be this much publicity unless they feel they have a smoking gun.

 

 

Finally, do you really think Coldplay set out to "claim authorship" of Joe Satriani's work? Seriously?

 

 

It's been done before, and I've witnessed it (an artist hears another band playing a song, then goes and records it and calls it "original"). Until the evidence comes out there's no way to know for sure, but it is certainly plausible. Given the absolutely identical nature of the hook between the two songs - heck, they're even in the same key - it just seems to be an awfully big coincidence.....

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