The law states that anything that reflects a “minimal spark” of creativity and originality can be copyrightable, including melody, chord progression, rhythm and lyrics. Eliot famously wrote: “Immature poets imitate mature poets steal.” What constitutes music plagiarism? The line between inspiration and plagiarism is a fine one, and is the crucial distinction when it comes to music plagiarism.Īs poet T.S.
Now that we’ve heard from the court of public opinion, what does the law say? Thanks Thom!” “Radiohead must need the money so they can pay the original writers of their song” “yes they sound similar, but ask for 100% of this song’s profit? Didn’t Radiohead steal it from the Hollies as well? don’t they feel ashamed?” “this song is really creepy” and “this song sounds like Gucci Gang by Lil Pump…Lana a thief.” Never heard of Lana Del Rey before this, but I’m glad I did. Similarities aside (and as a Radiohead fan for the past 20+ years), I must say this song is actually pretty good.
The comment section on the “Get Free” video is full of arguments on either side, and makes for some entertaining reading: “The Radiohead lawsuit brought me here. What makes the Lana Del Rey and Radiohead case particularly interesting is the fact that both artists have a very impassioned, vocal fan base. Sheeran settled out of court with a pair of songwriters after similarities were found between his song Photograph and the Matt Cardle song “Amazing,” and also retrospectively added the writers of TLC’s “No Scrubs” to the credits of his enormous hit “Shape of You.” As we examined in my article here, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were added to the credits for Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” in 2014, while in 2015 Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were successfully sued by Marvin Gaye’s estate for $7.4M, after it was found that their “Blurred Lines” plagiarized Gaye’s song “Got to Give It Up.”
From Sam Smith to Bruno Mars to Ed Sheeran, artists seem to be accused of music plagiarism more than ever.ĭel Rey is the latest in a string of high-profile artists to be accused of copying. Music plagiarism is a hot topic in the music industry these days. The irony is strong with this one! This is the kind of case that gets entertainment lawyers (and music fans) very excited. So: Radiohead is suing Lana Del Rey for plagiarism over a song that they actually plagiarized. So we ended up just getting a little piece of it.” According to Hammond, “Radiohead agreed that they had actually taken it … Because they were honest they weren’t sued to the point of saying ‘we want the whole thing’. Radiohead claimed that the similarities were unintentional and subconscious, but agreed to give a percentage of the songwriting royalties and songwriting credit to Hammond and Hazlewood. Hammond and Hazlewood sued Radiohead for plagiarism and won. The song became a major hit for The Hollies in 1974. The song they were sued over? “Creep.” The song shares a similar chord progression and melody to the song “The Air That I Breathe,” written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood and initially released on Hammond’s 1972 album It Never Rains in Southern California. Now, here’s where the plot thickens: what some news outlets are missing is that Radiohead was previously sued for plagiarism. Their lawyers have been relentless, so we will deal with it in court.” Although I know my song wasn’t inspired by “Creep,” Radiohead feel it was and want 100% of the publishing – I offered up to 40 over the last few months but they will only accept 100. Lana Del Rey tweeted yesterday: “It’s true about the lawsuit.
Your newsfeeds might be buzzing with the news that Radiohead are suing Lana Del Rey over her song “Get Free,” which they say plagiarizes their 1993 hit “Creep.”