Coldplay responds to plagiarism accusation

Coldplay has issued a response to guitarist Joe Satriani's accusation that the band stole portions of his 2004 song "If I Could Fly" for their current Grammy-nominated single "Viva La Vida." According to a statement released on Tuesday (December 9th), the band said, "With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. 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.' We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours."

Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit in Los Angeles last Thursday (December 4th). He is seeking a jury trial, damages and "any and all profits" attributable to the alleged copyright infringement.

According to the Associated Press, Satriani lawyer Howard E. King responded to Coldplay's statement by saying, "We attempted to have a dialogue on this before we went public. We felt almost forced to file suit ... As far as the 'coincidence,' ultimately that's for a jury to decide."

Satriani told Music Radar on Monday (December 8th) that when he first heard "Viva La Vida," it felt like "a dagger went right through my heart." The guitarist added that he did "everything I could to avoid a court case," but Coldplay "didn't want to talk about it."
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