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(Alleged) plagiarism
7 Sep 2010 10:48 amOn University Challenge last night, one of the music rounds was about songs that had plagiarism lawsuits attached at one point or another (Huey Lewis' I Want a new Drug and the Ghostbusters song, for example). Just like the Down Under debacle this year, I found the similarities extremely tenuous.
I also believe that it's quite likely that two people come up with the same melody/phrase/riff/bit of music completely independently, not least because I witnessed it myself. Back sometime in the early 90s, I was at my mate Stefan's flat chatting and he went, "Hey, I wrote a new song", grabbed his guitar and played the opening chords to Steve Earle's Devil's Right Hand. I asked him if that had been deliberate and he didn't even know the song. I then played it to him and he almost fell off his chair. ;o)
I also believe that it's quite likely that two people come up with the same melody/phrase/riff/bit of music completely independently, not least because I witnessed it myself. Back sometime in the early 90s, I was at my mate Stefan's flat chatting and he went, "Hey, I wrote a new song", grabbed his guitar and played the opening chords to Steve Earle's Devil's Right Hand. I asked him if that had been deliberate and he didn't even know the song. I then played it to him and he almost fell off his chair. ;o)
