I have. And wow, it looks like much of the melody for the song Viva La Vida is a direct lift of Satriani’s If I Could Fly. Check out Exhibit A:

Satriani’s convinced that Coldplay’s song is a direct copy, and having heard the YouTube version above, it’s hard to argue otherwise.

But every time a case of plagiarism arises, I’m reminded of a time a few years ago when I was in a band and thought I’d come up with a pretty neat little acoustic riff. I was playing it for the band, and the drummer chimed in “I didn’t know you were learning that Chili Peppers song.” So I swore at him a little bit and was convinced he was winding me up. Until he played the song for me later, and it was almost note for note what I ‘thought’ I’d written.

The catch is, maybe something you’ve heard in the past comes out in your songwriting. It isn’t necessarily plagiarism, maybe a pattern of notes triggers some memory and you’re suddenly playing a riff that feels right but blissfully unaware you’re ‘stealing’ someone else’s copyrighted melody.

I’m neither defending Coldplay nor accusing them. It looks like the courts will ultimately decide how this situation will pan out. Satriani, however, claims he tried to be reasonable with the band, but his requests apparently fell on deaf ears:

"I did everything I could to avoid a court case with this situation," Satriani told Music Radar. "But Coldplay didn’t want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. Maybe they figured this little guitar player guy will leave them alone after a while, I don’t know."

Anyway, I have a few thoughts about this kind of copyright case. I may be right or wrong – and I’ll rely on you guys to keep me right – but:

1. It is possible that two (or more) people might create the same melody, but never be aware of it.
2. It isn’t fair to claim that someone can own the right to a particular sequence of chords or notes, just because they copyrighted it first. Can you imagine the person who invented the generic 12-bar blues riff going on a legal rampage to get royalties from everybody who ever used that sequence? Aerosmith, Status Quo, and any number of bands you’d care to name would be facing huge (and unreasonable) payouts.
3. Isn’t music about inspiration? How many bands claim to be influenced by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones. How many 60’s bands were inspired by the old Delta bluesmen? Robert Johnson and all those other good men who sold their souls to the devil in return for the riffs that are the cornerstone of modern rock? What’s wrong with re-using a melody somewhere else, as long as the original artist is credited?
4. Does Satriani stand to get a huge payout over this? Well, yes, if the courts rule in his favour. But doesn’t something stink if the artist is more interested in getting paid than getting recognized for his work? Or does that matter in this day and age? (I’m not suggesting Satriani just wants paid out of this, I’m generalising)

So, what’s your take on not just the Coldplay/Satriani story, but on the larger copyright issue? Does an artist deserve to ‘own’ a particular sequence of notes, or should copyright law be tempered to be less about remuneration and more about proper credit for the original artist?

In this interview with Billboard, Gene describes how the entire record industry is in a complete mess and how the downloading of music is killing the industry.

Now, Gene’s a guy who protects his copyrights somewhat over enthusiastically. If you’ve read his book, Sex Money Kiss, you’ll know stories of how he’s hunted down owners of KISS fanzines in order to get his dues from them for capitalizing on the KISS brand. So it isn’t any surprise when Gene tells us his feelings on the matter:

The record industry doesn’t have a f*cking clue how to make money. It’s only their fault for letting foxes get into the henhouse and then wondering why there’s no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid’s face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning. Those kids are putting 100,000 to a million people out of work.

Gene seems to have as much respect for the music industry as he does for those college kids he’d love to sue, doesn’t he?

Furthermore, he totally dismisses the Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails type of sales techniques as a flawed business model.

While I love how outspoken Gene can be, I think he’s seeing the situation from his own viewpoint and failing to look at the bigger picture. He wants to profit from his work, that’s understandable. Fans want to get music from their favourite artists at a reasonable price.

Radiohead in particular showed some fantastically inventive thinking when they decided to sell their album at whatever price the listener wanted to pay. They showed that they were considering their fans and that they wanted to find a win-win situation for everybody. Trent Reznor, knowing that fans couldn’t get his records in some parts of the world was vocal in encouraging them to download it. Prince gave away an album for free with a national Sunday paper.

Gene, on the other hand, tries to squeeze every penny from his intellectual property. Hence the face that you can get a KISS branded coffin. But when  you hear Gene Simmons talk about KISS, you hear him talk about the money. Never the fans.

The difference as I see it is that Simmons sees the fans as an income stream. A paycheck. The other acts want to spread their music to the masses, and they care enough about the fans to try new methods of distribution.

Much as I like the guy’s attitude, I think Gene comes across as part of the problem with the music industry and not part of the solution.

What a dumbass.

When he decided to give his Planet Earth album away for free in a Sunday newspaper, we all applauded. He was a pioneer, and he was suddenly part of the movement which would reshape the music industry. Ha.

There’s a discussion going on (several discussions, actually) over on HouseQuake that relate to Prince’s decision to exercise “an iron fist” over copyright control. The one which says it all for me is:

Fan-friendly, to me, is not being heavyhanded and completely unreasonable by threatening baseless legal action unless avatars – and other pictures that are not copyrighted by Prince – are immediately removed by the website. Prince is using too broad a brush in his supposed war on the Internet and by doing so, he is causing the friction that you see on this fansite.

And on the website PrinceFansUnited, three major fansites are uniting against Prince and his crack legal crew. They have the following statement online now:

It is our opinion that these threats are not made in an attempt to enforce valid copyright as Prince alleges in his threats, rather we believe they are attempts to stifle all critical commentary about Prince. We strongly believe that such actions are in violation of the freedom of speech and should not be allowed. Prince claims that fansites are not allowed to present any artwork with Prince’s likeness, to the extreme that he has demanded removal of fan’s own photographs of their Prince inspired tattoos and their vehicles displaying Prince inspired license plates…

The owners of the three largest fansites supporting Prince: www.housequake.com, www.princefams.com and www.prince.org have come together to fight back to what amounts to an injustice to the fansites and the very fans who have supported Prince’s career, many since the very beginning nearly thirty years ago.

It is their hope that Prince will reconsider his position and allow these fansites to continue their existence without constant threats from Prince and his attorneys. Should this not be possible, the fansites are fully prepared to defend their position in the proper court of law, as well as fully prosecute any claims to which they are justly entitled.

I think they make their point pretty well. Besides, it is generally acknowledged that displaying album covers and certain photographs is fair use and doesn’t constitute a breach in copyright law.

Unless you’re an uptight little diva who’s hell-bent on divorcing yourself from reality.

Really, Prince, you’re a big disappointment.