Guitarist Joe Satriani claimed the band copied his instrumental If I Could Fly for their own track Viva La Vida, but an out-of-court-settlement now seems to have been reached …

Brian had me listen to the two tracks.

YIKES.

Coldplay had to have stolen the song.

… judge Dean D Pregerson dismissed the case and ruled that each party would “bear [their] own cost” for the litigation. The stipulation, er, “upon stipulation” suggests that the parties came to an out-of-court settlement – most likely that Coldplay paid Satriani off.

Although there is no evidence that Chris Martin and Coldplay directly copied Satriani’s song, court precedents make copyright infringement cases very sticky. George Harrison was famously found to have “subconsciously plagiarised” the Chiffons’ He’s So Fine for his track, My Sweet Lord.

Neither Coldplay nor Satriani have commented on the end of the proceedings. …

Coldplay plagiarism lawsuit dismissed by judge

Andrew from Creative Guitar Studio posted a little video that has been seen almost 900,000 times.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. (9min)