Coldplay’s plagiarism pickle

George Harrison is on it.

So is Michael Bolton.

And, as we're reminded in the current "Cadillac Records," Chuck Berry made sure The Beach Boys were also on the list.

Now add Coldplay to the lineup of artists who have been accused of musical plagiarism.

The British quartet is being sued by guitar maestro Joe Satriani for allegedly swiping "substantial original portions" of Satriani's instrumental "If I Could Fly" in the band's Grammy-nominated hit, "Viva La Vida."

In the case filed in Los Angeles, Satriani said he wants the band to stop using the song or for a federal judge to order an accounting to determine how much money Satriani is owed.

On Tuesday, Coldplay volleyed back in a statement that said, in part: "If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song 'Viva La Vida.'"

Thanks to the Internet, the public already has put Coldplay on trial, with most listeners determining that the two songs do share strikingly similar melody and chord progressions, though Coldplay's majestic chorus is its own beast.

Hear for yourself with a simple YouTube search of "Coldplay" and "Joe Satriani" -- the mashups of the two songs are particularly effective and could prove devastating to Coldplay if the case is brought to court.

But considering the subjective nature of music -- after all, a finite number of notes can produce just so many chord combinations -- what really constitutes copyright infringement?

Craig Harmon, a partner at Richmond's McGuireWoods who practices music law, says a couple of tests are usually applied to determine a ruling.

An "extrinsic" test is one in which the plaintiff must prove that the allegedly infringing work is substantially similar based on the technical musical elements of the song. Often, musicologists will be brought in to dissect melody lines, harmony and rhythms to compare the compositions.

Even now on YouTube, some homegrown music-theory geeks have dismantled the two songs' key changes and chord progressions.

Unfortunately for Coldplay, they, too, find overtly comparable patterns.

Then there is the "intrinsic" test, which is used to determine whether an average listener would regard the "aesthetic appeal" of the compositions being the same -- which is basically what is being done with the YouTube clips.

"It's the signature lick in [Satriani's] song and the signature refrain in [Coldplay's]," Harmon said. "I think it's the same number of bars, the same phrasing and melody lines. I would be surprised if Joe goes away without at least a settlement."

Another consideration is access to the material allegedly being plagiarized.

It's one thing for an unknown band to say it sent a demo copy of a song to a friend of a producer of The Rolling Stones' manager and then claim that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards stole the chorus which is why most management and PR firms won't accept unsolicited music.

See how far the unknown band gets with that case (interestingly, indie Brooklyn band Creaky Boards also accused Coldplay this year of snagging bits of its song, ironically titled "The Songs I Didn't Write," for "Viva La Vida," though they apparently settled for the brief flash of publicity it brought).

But with a major artist on a major label, such as Satriani, it's nearly impossible for Chris Martin and his bandmates to claim they never heard of him or his music.

Martin's candidness in interviews also won't do him any favors if the case does wind up in front of a judge.

In an interview this year with MTV UK, the singer was asked if there was ever a temptation for Coldplay to reinvent itself.

"I think as much as possible we look at what other people are doing and try and steal all the good bits from all of them. . . . We are affected by everything that's going on, but we steal from so many different places that, hopefully, it becomes untraceable," he said.

Think that might come back to haunt him?

But copyright-infringement issues aren't restricted to popular music from the 1950s onward.

UCLA's law school houses and sponsors the Copyright Infringement Project (cip.law.ucla.edu), a detailed list of cases dating to the pre-1900s.

There, you'll find summaries of under-the-radar cases and some of the more prominent ones in recent decades, including the suit by the Isley Brothers against Bolton and his co-songwriter Andrew Goldmark for "Love Is a Wonderful Thing."

In 1994, a jury found that Bolton's 1991 hit infringed on the copyright of the Isleys' 1964 song of the same name -- based on musical, not verbal, similarities -- and resulted in the largest damages award ever affiliated with music plagiarism: $5.4 million.

The court did note that Bolton might have plagiarized the song unconsciously, but it did not "relieve him of liability."

That same determination was made in perhaps the most widely known plagiarism case: Ronald Mack's "He's So Fine" (recorded by the Chiffons) versus George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" in 1976.

Despite his beloved status as a former Beatle, Harrison was found guilty of "unconsciously misappropriating the musical essence of 'He's So Fine.'"

While Coldplay is adamant that they are the sole originators of "Viva La Vida" -- even saying in their response to Satriani's lawsuit, "We respectfully ask [Satriani] to accept our assurances of this" this doesn't appear to be a case that is going to fade quietly.

"As I read the cases, if access and sufficient similarity [between the songs] are proven, the plaintiff wins," Harmon said. "'I did not mean to' does not work as a defense -- as George Harrison, may he rest in peace, could attest."