Joe Satriani / Coldplay legal battle ends

Wed, 16 Sep 2009

In December 2008, Joe “Satch” Satriani filed suit against Coldplay for plagiarising his song “If I Could Fly” on their huge hit “Viva La Vida.” Yesterday the case was dropped by California District Court “upon stipulation” indicating that out of court arrangements may have been made.

Satriani had asked for a Jury Trial to decide the matter, and sought damages, as well as all profits “attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.” Satch claimed that “Viva La Vida” contained “substantial original portions” of the song, which Satriani released on his 2004 album, “ Is There Love In Space?”

Coldplay have denied the plagiarism throughout, yet 2008’s Viva La Vida had previously caused controversy, when similar claims were made by alternative band, Creaky Boards. Creaky Boards frontman Andrew Hoepfner claimed that Chris Martin had heard the band perform the song at a show in Oct 2007. Martin denied the accusation, and Coldplay’s spokesman confirmed that the Coldplay singer was working in AIR Studios, London, UK at the time Hoepfner believed he had heard the Creaky Boards version.

Creaky Boards later retracted their claim, and Andrew Hoepfner concluded that both bands could have been inspired by the video game, The Legend of Zelda!

More recently Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens) had stated that “Viva La Vida” was very similar to a song recorded under his former moniker, entitled “Foreigner Suite.” Any legal proceedings that might have been brought were said to depend on the Satriani case. However, later on, Islam (Cat Stevens) publicly said “They did copy my song but I don’t think they did it on purpose.”

Coldplay’s drummer Will Champion stated “We’re confident we haven’t done anything wrong.”

It would seem that money talks in the California courts (or out of them) and Satch and Coldplay have obviously settled. But what do you think? Have your say on our Forum.

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