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Coldplay garner themselves another plagiarism lawsuit
By Chris Coplan on January 15th, 2010 in
Music plagiarism is a big deal. It can ruin reputations and end careers. No one has learned the potential damages of such charges better over the last few months than Coldplay — the likes of Joe Satriani, Cat Stevens, a random singer-songwriter, an animator, and some relatively unknown indie band have all accused the group of ripping them off in one way or another. And now there’s another person throwing their hat in the “sue the pants off Coldplay” club.
As TMZ reports (via Rolling Stone), a man named Sammie Lee Smith has recorded 4,000 songs on some 100 tapes since 1976. Of those songs, he claims that “Yellow”, “Clocks”, and “Trouble” were ripped off from his plentiful back catalog. No one seems sure how the band came into contact with Smith, but the lawsuit demands that the band cease playing these songs and that Mr. Smith receives an undisclosed but undoubtedly exuberant amount of money. So, there.
We’ll keep you updated on the outcome of the case and if the hordes continue to descend upon the band.
TAGGED AS: Andy J Gallagher, Cat Stevens, Coldplay, Creaky Boards, Joe Satriani
comments (10)
Ok seriously? they need to cut the crap, this is total bull. sammie probably needs some money or somethin, but thats bullcrap. and Ron, go die in a friggin hole, because this is totally untrue, what coldplay really did is, Chris Martin found that he was epic at singing and playing guitar, and writing music, so he did.
stealing is stealing. little weenie band called coldplay are about as useless as they come. these scum-bags found an occupation; ripping people off. i wish i could step on their little weenie heads. i hope every musician in the world sues these pathetic losers. they should go to jail for stealing. a band becomes very useless if they have to steal music and then call it their own. thieves…
What a load of bollocks. I wrote “The Scientist” in my sleep but Coldplay do it much better than me and I don’t need the money anyhow, so I’m saying nothing.
maybe he could open for them on their next tour
those are some of their oldest songs too. Why did this guy wait so long to sue them?I don’t believe it.
wow… i totally wrote yellow, clocks, and trouble way before anyone. i’m suing them all!
those are probably their best three tracks too haha.
This one sounds a bit off, but everything else has seemed legit to me.
HAHAHAHA….. This just cracks me up!
Because the band totally had access to someone’s private tape collection…
