Coldplay and Joe Satriani - Copyright Case

In December 2008 Coldplay, one of the world's biggest bands, were accused of plagiarism by legendary guitarist Joe Satriani. He claimed the phenomenally successful title track of Coldplay's multi-platinum album Viva La Vida infringed the copyright in his instrumental track If I Could Fly.

Satriani claims the two songs are so similar (in that their melody lines are almost identical) that he should be entitled to damages amounting to "any and all profits" which Coldplay have made from one of their most successful releases. It was their first UK number 1 single and part of an iconic advertising campaign for the iPod. Coldplay claim Satriani's song is not original enough to be protected by copyright and any similarity is purely coincidental and was "just as much of a surprise to them".

Media and IP law expert Steve Kuncewicz, from law firm Ralli, had the following
comment:

"Now Coldplay have filed a defence, it's much easier to get an idea of how this case is likely to be decided. This is a situation which has come before the court a number of times before, perhaps most famously when George Harrison was forced to pay damages for copyright infringement after a court ruled My Sweet Lord was too similar to He's So Fine and more recently when the Verve were forced to reach a settlement with the Rolling Stones over the use of the melody line from an orchestral version of The Last Time. They effectively hand over all of their royalties for their most popular song, which many believe led to their split during the 90s.
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