▲The duo was accused and found guilty of copying Marvin Gaye's song 'Got To Give It Up' (1977) when they wrote 'Blurred Lines' (2013).

▲Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were sentenced by a US Federal Court to pay a fine of 7.3 million dollars to Gaye's heirs.

▲It's impossible not to notice the similarities between the North American band's song with Tom Petty's 'American Girl'. Even the group have acknowledged it.

▲Despite this, both parties agreed that it was just a "coincidence" and there was no need to take it to the courts.

▲The song from the band's 1994 album 'Definitely Maybe' was claimed to be a copy of a jingle used on a Coca-Cola advertising campaign in 1971.

▲The British band Oasis had to pay US $500,000 of author rights. After the episode, Noel Gallagher stated that from then on the band would only drink Pepsi.

▲The band had worldwide success with this song in 1992, however they had to split the profit with the composers from The Hollies.

▲Songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood claimed that Radiohead had plagiarised their song 'The Air That I Breathe' and ended up being credited as co-authors of 'Creep'.

▲JLo released the song in 2011 and it was a huge success around the world. However, the artist was later accused of plagiarism by the Bollywood singer Bappi Lahiri.

▲The singer accused JLo of plagiarizing his song 'Sochna Kya Jo Bhi Hoga Dekha Jayega', though the original sample of the song wasn't actually his. Instead, it belonged to the Brazilian band Kaoma and their song 'Chorando Se Foi'.

▲The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra produced a orchestral version of 'The Last Time' by The Rolling Stones. The song end up being where The Verve's most successful song comes from.

▲The fight was taken to court, and ended up awarding 100% of the song's rights to the Stones. However, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards ended up sharing the royalties with The Verve's vocalist, Richard Ashcroft.

▲In 1978, Rod Stewart released the song 'Do Ya Think I’m Sexy' and the comparison with the chorus of the 1972 Jorge Ben's song was inevitable.

▲The Brazilian's catchy tune had been successful and made it to Britain. A few years later, outside the courts, the Stewart admitted that it was an unconscious plagiarism.

▲The rock group was accused of plagiarism in their song 'Whole Lotta Love', inspired by 'You Need Love', written by Willie Dixon.

▲After the song's huge success, Willie Dixon sued the band and they reached an extra-judicial settlement. Dixon was credited as co-author of the song.

▲The king of pop was accused of plagiarism in the song 'Wanna Be Startin’ Something', written by Manu Dibango.

▲The Cameroonian saxophonist got into a judicial battle and the matter was settled through an extra-judicial agreement, in which Jackson had to pay around US $200,000 to Dibango for author's rights.

▲The musician was accused of plagiarism on the first single of the album 'All Things Must Pass'. The company Bright Tunes sued the former Beatles' guitarist alleging that the song was similar to 'He’s So Fine'.

▲'He’s So Fine' was composed by Ronald Mack but recorded by 'The Chiffons' in 1962. Although Harrison didn't plead guilty, he was accused of unconscious plagiarism and had to pay more than US $500,000 in fines.

▲In 1969, Chuck Berry's record label accused The Beatles of copying the lyrics and melody of the song 'You Can’t Catch Me'.

▲The case went into court but both parties settled the matter in a confidential extra-judicial agreement.

▲'Step Out' should have been on the band's second album, '(What's the Story) Morning Glory?' and it was even included is some promo versions. But it was mysteriously left out of the final record.

▲When it reappeared a year later as the single, 'Don't Look back In Anger', 3 authors of the song 'Uptight' were listed in the credits. Wonder, who was one of them, demanded 10% of all author's rights.

▲The Beach Boys' song is very similar to the one by the renowned guitarist Chuck Berry.

▲Carl Wilson said that his brother Brian, who was the band's main singer, loved Chuck Berry's song. Chuck still managed to be credited as co-author of the song.

▲Shortly after releasing the single 'Roar', the singer was accused of plagiarism by the singer Sara Bareilles' fans. The intros on both songs are undoubtedly very similar.

▲Even whilst dealing with accusations of plagiarism and comparisons between both hits, singer Sara Bareilles didn't seem to be affected by the affair and even confessed in an interview that she liked Katy.

▲The musician was accused of plagiarism by the family of the late violinist, Luiz Bonfá. They claimed that that the track mimicked part of his 1967 song, 'Seville'.

▲In 2011, the family reached an agreement with the artist. The Brazilian was credited as the co-author of the song and entitled to receive royalties.

Plagiarism or inspiration? The biggest music rip-offs

Most of these cases were handed over to the courts and resolutions were reached.

24/11/23 por StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Music

Music industry giants battling in the courts over authorship, co-authorship, plagiarism and 'inspiration', is nothing new. If you want to compose a totally new and original song, you need a lot of creativity, and we mean a lot.

This is why it's very common for songwriters to listen to old tunes, remix classics and, of course, draw inspiration from their music icons. Problems occur when the legal line is crossed and 'inspiration' becomes plagiarism. Recently, musicians such as Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were fined and had to pay author's rights for plagiarizing the 1977 Marvin Gaye's song 'Got To Give It Up'.

Check out the most controversial battles in the music business!