Joe Satriani has accused the band Coldplay of copying his song in a pending lawsuit filed last year.  Satriani says that Coldplay’s song “Viva La Vida” borrows substantially from his song “If I Could Fly.”  “Viva La Vida” won a Grammy for Song of the Year for 2008. Satriani’s song, released in 2004 was intended as a love letter to his wife and reportedly took him ten years to write.

Satriani is a Grammy nominated guitarist that has released a dozen solo albums selling in excess of ten million copies.  Dubbed “Satch” by his fans, he has played with several rock legends including Mick Jagger, Sammy Hagar and Alice Cooper.  Just in case you have been living under a rock, Coldplay is a British alternative rock band that has produced four major label albums and won seven Grammy awards.  They have sold in excess of 50 million records.  They have eschewed endorsement and licensing deals (with the exception of an iTunes commercial) and to their credit, Coldplay claims they give 10% of their profits to charity. 

Satriani says it was his fans that brought the songs’ similarities to his attention.  After Coldplay’s latest record was released, Satriani’s inbox was flooded with emails telling him he was being “ripped off”.  He said: “The second I heard, I knew…I felt like a dagger went through my heart.”  And Satriani is not the only one who feels cheated.  Cat Stevens claims that Coldplay infringed his song “Foreigner Suite”.  And it doesn’t stop there.  Creaky Boards, an indie rock band from New York, claim “Viva La Vida” is a ripoff of their song, “The Songs I Didn’t Write”.  Cat Stevens says he will wait and see how Satriani’s lawsuit plays out before taking any action.  Creaky Boards seem to have relished the publicity their band is getting.  After all, being compared to Coldplay can’t be such a bad thing for a relatively unknown band from Brooklyn.

Several facts that are bound to come up at trial have been bantered about by Facebook and YouTube users.  Apparently, Coldplay was well aware of Satriani’s work, mentioning the guitarist specifically in a 2002 interview with VH1.  Also damaging to their case is the fact that Coldplay admitted copying or imitating other artists in several published interviews.  In a recent BBC interview, frontman Chris Martin admits imitating Jeff Buckley’s style in their first Top 40 hit “Shiver”.  Also, on VH1 Storytellers, the band compared similarities in their song “Speed of Sound” and Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill”. Martin asks his bandmates to admit on television that “they stole the next song off Kate Bush.”  Coldplay’s guitarist chimes in saying:  “Some bands are reluctant to admit that they take things from other artists…but we are shameless in that respect.”  Even more damning is Martin’s statement to Rolling Stone about his music: “We are definitely good, but I don’t think you can say that we’re original.  I regard us as being incredibly good plagerists.”

My research for this blog reveals that everyone seems to have a passionate opinion on which way this case will turn out.  In fact, Coldplay’s fans created a Facebook page dedicated to the cause called “Help Coldplay Beat the Joe Satriani Lawsuit.”  Fans point out that there are a handful of songs that are similar and pre-date the Coldplay and Satriani’s songs.  The most similar song of the bunch is a 2002 song entitled “Frances Limon” by Enanitos Verdes. 

To even an untrained ear like my own, the similarities between the 3 songs are uncanny. 

Another factor in Coldplay’s favor is that they previously licensed artist’s work when they felt it was necessary.  Coldplay received permission to use Kraftwerk’s “Computer Love” as the basis for their song “Talk”. However, professional musicians and amateur musicologists are weighing in on the merits of Satriani’s lawsuit on YouTube.  Some say it doesn’t bode well for Coldplay.  As you would expect, there are many “mash ups” of the two songs that have been posted by You Tube users attempting to compare the songs (some of which have been removed by the respective copyright owners).  However, it is the YouTube video by music theorist Andrew Wasson that has surely caught the eye of Coldplay’s legal counsel.  Wasson expertly describes the similarities between the two songs. He claims they both have the same tempo of 136 beats per minute and have similar chord progressions.  Wasson breaks the songs down and explains that even though Coldplay’s version is slightly different musically, that it ends up sounding the same and has the same emotional effect because of the theory of diatonic chord substitution.  For those of us who are not that technical, suffice it to say that Coldplay and Satriani each will have their respective experts testify as to the similarities and differences between the two songs.  Who knows, maybe even Wasson himself will be called to testify.

Satriani’s complaint seeks relief under Section 501 of the Copyright Act for willful copyright infringement.  Satriani asked for a jury trial and could have elected to seek either profits or statutory damages under Section 504 of the Act.   As expected. Satriani is seeking profits from the song which could be substantial given “Viva La Vida’s” records sales.  Satriani claims that he did everything he could “to avoid a court case…but Coldplay didn’t want to talk about it.  They just wanted this whole thing to go away.”

Coldplay filed an answer to the complaint denying any infringement took place.  They have asserted nine affirmative defenses to the infringement including: Failure to state a claim, independent creation, no originality, fair use, estoppel, waiver, laches, unclean hands and de minimus use.  The kitchen sink approach is not surprising in an infringement lawsuit and only time will tell which of these defenses will actually fly.

Assuming this lawsuit goes forward and is not settled before trial, Satriani must prove ownership of a valid copyright and copying by the defendant Coldplay.  Ownership of the copyright should be easy to prove up.  The crux of the case will be whether Coldplay copied Satriani’s song.  In order to prove copying, Satriani must establish that Coldplay had access to the work and that there are substantial similarities between the songs.  In future blogs, I will discuss some of Coldplay’s potential defenses and how courts will determine access and substantial similarity.