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Some songs borrow a little too liberally from their predecessors. Join us as we count down the most high-profile copyright disputes where one song was accused of borrowing too heavily from another! Our countdown includes "Ice Ice Baby" vs. "Under Pressure," "Blurred Lines" vs. "Got to Give It Up," "Creep" vs. "The Air That I Breathe," "Uptown Funk" and more!
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00:00I could turn back your hands to time and make you fall in love
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most high-profile copyright disputes
00:13where one song was accused of borrowing too heavily from another
00:16Cause I feel so high when I'm reaching out for your sky
00:24Number 30, Donna Summer, I Feel Love vs. Ye and Dala, Good Don't Die
00:29Kanye West has always been a magnet for controversy
00:32and in 2024, he found himself at the center of yet another one
00:36The song Good Don't Die, which was intended to feature on the debut album of Ye and Dala
00:49West's supergroup with rapper Ty Dolla $ign was suddenly taken off the project
00:53as it was accused of being too similar to Donna Summer's hit single I Feel Love
01:08Summer's estate claimed the supergroup either changed the words, re-sang it, or used AI
01:12but that the result was still unmistakably the same song
01:15After the estate's public complaint, the track was pulled from major streaming platforms
01:20Summer's widower, Bruce Sedano, later filed suit in federal court
01:23accusing West and Ty Dolla $ign of blatant copyright infringement
01:33Number 29, Bruno Mars' When I Was Your Man vs. Miley Cyrus' Flowers
01:38Miley Cyrus' Grammy-winning breakup anthem Flowers
01:41has widely been interpreted as an empowered response to Bruno Mars' heartbreak ballad When I Was Your Man
01:54But despite the clear similarities, no one expected things to end in a copyright lawsuit
01:59However, in September 2024, investment company Tempo Music Investments sued Cyrus
02:05claiming Flowers unlawfully exploited Mars' 2012 hit
02:09which they partially owned from their deal with the song's co-writer Philip Lawrence
02:19It's worth noting though that Mars himself is not involved in the case
02:23When Cyrus' team tried to get the case dismissed in November 2024
02:26arguing Tempo lacked standing without the other co-owners
02:30the court disagreed
02:31It remains to be seen whether actual infringement will be found on Cyrus' part
02:43Number 28, Jake Holmes' Dazed and Confused vs. Led Zeppelin' Dazed and Confused
02:48Singer-songwriter Jake Holmes first wrote and recorded Dazed and Confused
02:52for his 1967 debut album, The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes
03:05His version was a folk-flavored track about romantic indecision
03:09Not a bad acid trip as some have incorrectly assumed
03:12When the Yardbirds heard Holmes perform it live in August 1967
03:15they reworked the arrangement entirely
03:27Guitarist Jimmy Page then carried it over to his new band Led Zeppelin
03:31who re-recorded it with new lyrics and a completely different vocal line for their 1968 debut album
03:47Holmes tried reaching Page in the 1980s about songwriting credit
03:50and was met with total silence
03:52He finally filed multiple lawsuits starting in 2010
03:55but only reached a confidential settlement with the band in August 2025
04:08Number 27, Sami Chakri, O.Y. vs. Ed Sheeran, Shape of You
04:12Ed Sheeran has become something of a regular in the music copyright conversation
04:24He was first sued in 2016 by the family of Ed Townsend
04:27a co-writer on Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On
04:30claiming that Sheeran's song Thinking Out Loud plagiarized the 1973 classic
04:42He found himself in the copyright battlefield yet again
04:45when musicians Sami Chakri and Ross O'Donohue
04:48alleged that Shape of You copied a riff from Chakri's 2015 song O.Y.
04:59The legal proceedings kicked off in May 2018
05:02when Sheeran and co-writer Stephen McCutcheon and John McDade
05:05asked the high court to declare no infringement had occurred
05:08In April 2022, the judge dismissed the case
05:11finding that Sheeran had
05:12quote, neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied the track
05:22Number 26, Article Sound System Live Your Life vs. Dua Lipa Levitating
05:37Dua Lipa's disco pop hit may have felt unstoppable on the charts
05:40but it wasn't without some legal turbulence
05:43Reggae band Article Sound System sued Lipa and her record label in March 2022
05:47claiming similarities between Levitating and their 2017 track Live Your Life
06:03That case was dropped the following year
06:05after a judge found zero evidence Lipa or her co-writers had ever heard Live Your Life
06:10Near days later, songwriters L. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer
06:14piled on with a separate claim
06:15arguing Levitating infringed on their 1979 disco track Wiggle and Giggle all night
06:29In March 2025, that suit was also dismissed
06:32with the judge noting the only similarities involved a descending scale
06:36that simply wasn't protected under copyright law
06:47Number 25, 3LW Play is Gon' Play vs. Taylor Swift Shake It Off
06:52The phrase, player's gonna play, haters gonna hate
07:04It feels like it belongs to the public domain of human expression
07:07But someone begged to differ
07:08Songwriters Sean Hall and Nate Butler, who penned 3LW's 2001 track Play Is Gon' Play
07:14sued Taylor Swift in September 2017 over lyrical similarities with Shake It Off
07:26U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald dismissed the case in February 2018, deeming the lyrics
07:32too commonly used to be protected under copyright law
07:35But that ruling was reversed the following year
07:45Soon after, a relentless back and forth ensued
07:48with Swift's legal team filing several dismissal motions
07:51and Hall and Butler's team refusing to back down
07:53Eventually though, in December 2022, the suit was dropped without a final verdict
08:03Number 24, Flame, Joyful Noise vs. Katy Perry Dark Horse
08:08Dark Horse gave Katy Perry a moody, trap-pop monster hit
08:19But Christian rapper Flame said its repeating instrumental figure came from his 2008 track Joyful Noise
08:25Your boy's been a Christian, quite a few years
08:28Victory in faith, but I failed in my fears
08:31In 2014, he filed a copyright lawsuit against Perry and her co-writers
08:36And five years later, a jury ruled in his favor
08:39awarding him nearly $3 million in damages
08:42But then, the legal pendulum all came back around
08:45Cause I'm coming at you like a dark horse
08:54Drawing heavily on the precedent set when Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven was cleared of infringement in the 9th Circuit
08:59An appeals court vacated the entire jury award in March 2020
09:03The court found that the descending minor scale at the center of the dispute
09:07simply wasn't original enough to be owned by anyone
09:18Number 23, Sharon Tabor and Randy Gonzalez, Right Before My Eyes vs. Mariah Carey, Can't Let Go
09:25Mariah Carey's sophomore album Emotions was a commercial triumph
09:28solidifying her as one of the most impressive vocalists of all time
09:40However, it came with its own legal headaches
09:42All three singles faced copyright challenges in some capacity
09:46Most notably, Can't Let Go
09:48In March 1992, songwriters Sharon Tabor and Randy Gonzalez sued Carey
09:52Alleging the song's chorus was essentially identical to their 1990 song, Right Before My Eyes
10:06Carey's camp denied everything
10:07The case wound through the courts for four years before being quietly settled in 1996
10:12just ahead of what had been an impending trial
10:15The settlement, which was reached under confidentiality
10:18was reportedly worth around $1 million
10:30Number 22, Desiree Feels So High vs. Janet Jackson, Got Till It's Gone
10:35British singer Desiree had a clear ear for a familiar melody
10:45When Janet Jackson released Got Till It's Gone in 1997
10:48Desiree immediately recognized elements of her own 1992 track Feel So High
11:00Soon after the song's release, she took legal action against Jackson and her producers
11:05The case was resolved in July 1998 with an out-of-court settlement
11:09that granted Desiree a remarkable 25% of the publishing royalties from Got Till It's Gone
11:14amounting to roughly 2 million pounds
11:22Refreshingly, Desiree was candid that the money wasn't the point
11:25She said her aim was justice, not a payout
11:28She simply wanted Jackson to acknowledge that she had taken parts of her song without even crediting her
11:41Number 21, Rick James, Super Freak vs. MC Hammer, You Can't Touch This
11:54Let's be real, You Can't Touch This doesn't exactly hide where it's borrowing from
11:58That unmistakable opening riff from Rick James' 1981 funk classic Super Freak
12:03forms the literal backbone of MC Hammer's 1990 hit, repeating throughout the entire track
12:15James and other performers featured on the original record filed a copyright infringement lawsuit,
12:20arguing that their work was the foundation of the song
12:23The case was settled out of court, with Hammer agreeing to credit James as a co-songwriter on You Can't
12:28Touch This
12:35That credit meant James was entitled to millions in royalties from one of the biggest songs of the early 90s
12:41Looking back, it's pretty hilarious they thought Rick James just wouldn't recognize his own riff
12:54Number 20, The Kinks, All Day and All of the Night vs. The Doors, Hello I Love You
12:59Girl, I want to be with you all of the time, all day and all of the night
13:06Although The Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger denied that his band copied the chord-driven main riff of the 1964 Kinks
13:12track,
13:13The Kinks music publishers found that these two singles were just a bit too similar
13:20Turns out UK courts agreed, so a deal was eventually struck,
13:25entitling The Kinks to a large share of Hello I Love You's British royalties
13:29Girl, I want to be with you all of the time, all day and all of the night
13:35The Doors song credits remain unchanged, but in 2014,
13:39Kinks lead singer and main songwriter Ray Davies suggested to Rolling Stone
13:43that an out-of-court settlement had been reached
13:49Number 19, Tom Petty, I Won't Back Down vs. Sam Smith, Stay With Me
13:54Traditionally, when songs popped up that sounded a bit Tom Petty,
13:57the late Heartbreakers frontman let it slide, but this time things played out differently
14:09Although the band leader expressed no hard feelings and deemed the similarities between the chorus to his
14:14I Won't Back Down and Smith's Stay With Me to be, quote,
14:17a musical accident, his publishing company entered the fray all the same
14:21Won't you stay with me
14:26Cause you're all I mean
14:30Perhaps it was because, unlike American Girl and Mary Jane's Last Dance,
14:34the TP track in question had a co-writer, fellow traveling Wilbury and ELO songwriter Jeff Lynn
14:40In the end, Petty and Lynn ended up getting their due credit, along with 12.5% of the Stay
14:46With Me royalties
14:47Number 18, Joe Satriani, If I Could Fly vs. Coldplay, Viva La Vida
14:53Take notes on this one, you're gonna need them
14:59First up, Brooklyn-based indie alternative band Creaky Board suggested that Coldplay had ripped off their
15:04ironically titled The Songs I Didn't Write
15:06However, the British rockers had recorded a demo of Viva prior to that song's first performance
15:19Then, Joe Satriani stepped up, lawsuit in hand, claiming that Chris Martin and crew borrowed from his If I Could
15:25Fly
15:33Things got even more complicated when Yusuf Islam, formerly Cat Stevens, joined in on the fun
15:38pointing out that all of these songs sounded like his Foreigner Suite
15:42Satriani's case was later dismissed in 2009
15:52Number 17, The New Seekers, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony vs. Oasis Shaker Maker
15:58Oasis has never tried to hide their reverence for the past when it comes to their own musical style
16:02but this is one case where Noel Gallagher may have borrowed a bit too much
16:09The song, I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony, began its life as a Coca-Cola
16:14jingle
16:15before being fleshed out and recorded by the New Seekers
16:24and ultimately having its melody and some lyrics woven into the fabric of Oasis' Shaker Maker
16:34Most sources claim that Gallagher was forced to change the offending, I'd Like to Teach the World line, alter a
16:40few notes, and cough up $500,000
16:42Upon losing the aforementioned lawsuit, Gallagher quipped
16:46Quote, We Drink Pepsi Now
16:48Number 16, Muddy Waters, You Need Love vs. Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love
16:53By cranking the tempo and volume of the blues, Led Zepp helped pioneer hard rock and heavy metal
17:03But sometimes they stuck just a bit too close to their roots
17:06While it took them a long time to get caught
17:13The rock icons were finally sued in 1985
17:16for Whole Lotta Love's Whole Lotta Similarities to the Willie Dixon penned Muddy Waters classic, You Need Love
17:28Though things were eventually settled out of court
17:30It wasn't the only time the British rockers were accused of borrowing material
17:34As even Stairway to Heaven has been tainted by calls of plagiarism
17:38Number 15, The Reubenews, I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend vs. Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend
17:46When the Reubenews stepped up claiming Avril Lavigne had plagiarized them
17:49Avril said, Reuben who?
17:51But aside from claiming she'd never heard of the band or their song
17:54She and her team chose a risky defense
18:02They said Girlfriend was actually closer to the Rolling Stones' Get Off of My Cloud
18:07Or Mickey
18:08But wait a minute, what about the Ramone song I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend?
18:12Had the Reubenews themselves plagiarized?
18:14Ultimately, a musicologist decided the Reubenews track and Avril's song were completely different
18:19Based on science
18:20And the case was settled out of court
18:22When Avril's manager decided it was cheaper than paying lawyers
18:25Number 14, The Kinks Picture Book vs. The Other Garden
18:29Never Got The Chance vs. Green Day Warning
18:31And now, how not to file a lawsuit?
18:37In 2001, Colin Mary, songwriter for an obscure English band called The Other Garden
18:50Sued Green Day, claiming that Warning was a copy of his song
18:53Never Got The Chance
18:59The band's lawyer threatened to sue the punk rockers for as much as $100,000
19:03Despite the fact that Mary admitted both his and Green Day's songs
19:06Had the same distinct riff as Picture Book by The Kinks
19:15Needless to say, the lawsuit was eventually dropped
19:19Number 13, Larrikin Music's Kookaburra vs. Men at Work Down Under
19:23Down Under, a backhanded anthem of all things Ozzy
19:26And a monster hit in the early 1980s
19:29Became a source of legal trouble in the 2000s
19:36Originally, the band's flautist, Greg Hamm
19:38Borrowed a two-bar motif from Kookaburra
19:41An Australian children's song
19:43Years went by without incident
19:45Until the connection between the two tunes
19:47Was mentioned on the game show Spics and Specs in 2007
19:50That's when the right holders to Kookaburra, Larrikin Music, came knocking
19:54Kookaburra's sitting in the old gum tree
19:56Demanding 60% of Down Under's royalties dating back to 1981
20:00In July 2010, they instead were granted 5%, backdated to 2002
20:06Sadly, Hamm passed away in 2012 at the age of 58
20:10And bandmate Colin Hay cites stress from the court case as a contributing factor
20:15You know, the fact of the matter is that it went unrecognized for 27 years
20:20Because it was unconscious, it was innocuous, it was naive
20:23Number 12, Huey Lewis and the News' I Want a New Drug vs. Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters
20:29Who you gonna call? A lawyer if you're Huey Lewis
20:32Lewis was actually asked to write a theme for Ghostbusters
20:40But passed on it to write music for Back to the Future
20:48So, when Ray Parker Jr.'s theme for the supernatural comedy came out
20:52Sounding suspiciously like Huey's I Want a New Drug
20:55Lewis cited plagiarism
21:04It was settled out of court almost a decade later
21:07And when the news frontman spilled the beans on the confidential settlement on TV
21:11Ray Parker Jr. Turned the tables and sued Lewis Wright back in 2001
21:21Number 11, Sleigh Bells Infinity Guitars vs. Demi Lovato Stars
21:29Typically, only lyrics and melody are considered copyrightable
21:33For New York band Sleigh Bells
21:35Demi Lovato's Stars sounded quote
21:38Virtually identical to their Infinity guitars
21:40With a little bit of riot rhythm mixed in
21:43But it was chiefly the hand claps and bass drum counter rhythm that were cited
21:53It was on this basis that the duo laid a case against Lovato, UMG Recordings
21:57And producers and co-writers Carl Falck and Rami Yacoub
22:01The problem was Falck and Yacoub claimed no samples were used in the song
22:05And that Demi only wrote one line
22:07The matter was settled in April 2017
22:10And Lovato's team maintained there was no deliberate infringement
22:18Number 10, Creedence Clearwater Revival Run Through the Jungle vs. John Fogerty
22:24The Old Man Down the Road
22:25In a very odd move, John Fogerty was sued for sounding like himself
22:36Fogerty was once the lead vocalist, lead guitarist and primary songwriter of Creedence Clearwater Revival
22:42But after the band broke up, he relinquished his rights to CCR songs to get out of contractual commitments
22:47So when Fogerty released the solo track The Old Man Down the Road
22:51Fantasy Records, owner of CCR's song catalog and his label during his Creedence days
22:56Claimed it ripped off Run Through the Jungle
22:58Better run through the jungle
23:02Better run through the jungle
23:04The Swamp Rocker beat the case by bringing a guitar to the stand
23:08And demonstrating that the two songs were, in fact, quite different
23:11And that you can't actually plagiarize yourself
23:14Well played, Fogerty
23:16My songs tend to sound like my songs, right?
23:19Number 9, Gordon Jenkins' Crescent City Blues vs. Johnny Cash' Folsom Prison Blues
23:24In the annals of song plagiarism, there have been cases of subconscious plagiarism
23:29Outright plagiarism, uncleared samples, and downright sneakiness
23:33This is a case of self-amusement gone awry
23:36While stationed in West Germany in 1953
23:39Johnny Cash wrote new lyrics to the melody of Crescent City Blues
23:42Inspired by the film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison
23:46When I was just a baby, my mama told me, son
23:50Flash forward a few years, and Cash is now a recording artist short on material
23:55So he offered up his Folsom Prison Blues to producer Sam Phillips
23:59Who told Cash not to worry about the legalities
24:0715 years later, the Men in Black would pay out $75,000 in retribution
24:12Number 8, The Rolling Stones' The Last Time vs. The Verve, Bittersweet Symphony
24:18This 90s Britpop anthem was at the center of a lengthy and contentious plagiarism case
24:26The Verve did obtain the rights to sample part of the Andrew Oldham orchestral version
24:30Of the classic Stones song
24:32The issue was how much the band used
24:34And according to former Stones manager and rights holder of the song Alan Klein
24:38It was way too much
24:48So, 100% of the royalties went to Klein
24:51And songwriting credit went to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards
25:00That's when Oldham himself demanded recompense for the specific version of the song they had used
25:05Though it took many years, this story does have a relatively happy ending
25:10With the Stones backing off by 2019
25:12And granting all future royalties to Verve lead singer Richard Ashcroft
25:25Number 7, Chuck Berry, You Can't Catch Me vs. The Beatles Come Together
25:30This story starts simply enough
25:35John Lennon used an old Chuck Berry song as a starting point for a new song
25:39But this similarity triggered legal issues with Berry's publisher
25:42The controversial Morris Levy
25:51As repayment, Lennon agreed to record three songs owned by Levy
25:54And attempted to do so during his rock and roll album sessions
25:58Until producer Phil Spector stole the tapes and went into hiding
26:02When the tapes were recovered
26:04Lennon tried reassuring Levy that he was upholding his end of the deal
26:07By sharing a rough mix of his progress
26:09Which Levy released himself and chased with a $42 million breach of contract lawsuit
26:15Lennon, EMI, and Capitol Records countersued
26:18With Levy being awarded a nominal $6,795
26:22While having to pay out somewhere in the ballpark of $150,000
26:27Number 6, The Chiffons, He's So Fine vs. George Harrison, My Sweet Lord
26:32Soon after releasing his solo hit
26:34The first number one single by a former Beatle
26:36George Harrison found himself at the center of a copyright infringement lawsuit
26:40Filed by Bright Tunes
26:47Harrison was accused of plagiarizing the Ronnie Mac Penn song
26:51He's So Fine
26:51The courts ruled that he had subconsciously copied the chiffon smash
26:55And would owe nearly $1.6 million in damages
27:05But the story doesn't end there
27:07After Harrison fired his manager
27:09The previously mentioned Alan Klein
27:11During the trial
27:12Klein seized the opportunity to buy the copyright to He's So Fine
27:18The courts ultimately decided that Harrison would only have to pay Klein's Abco Industries
27:24$587,000
27:25And he ended up with the song's rights
27:27Number 5, The Hollies, The Air That I Breathe vs. Radiohead, Creep
27:31This case is so open and shut it's almost dull
27:43While writing Creep, Ed O'Brien pointed out to Tom York
27:46That the song's bridge had the same chords as The Air That I Breathe
27:49So York decided to grab the song's melody too
27:59That song's authors, Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood, then sued
28:04But were impressed by the band's honesty
28:06And settled for credits and a cut of the Creep royalties
28:09It's a sharp contrast to 2018
28:11When Lana Del Rey would allege that Radiohead's team noticed passing similarities to Creep
28:16In her song, Get Free
28:17And demanded 100% of her royalties
28:20Gone is the burden
28:24Of the crowd they live in
28:29Number 4, Marvin Gaye, Gotta Give It Up vs. Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams' Blurred Lines
28:35Let's welcome one of the great talents in the history of popular music
28:39Let's get your hands together, gang, for Mr. Marvin Gaye
28:43In one of many controversies that plagued this summer hit, Robin Thicke actually sued Marvin Gaye's family
28:49For alleging the singer had plagiarized the late soul artist
28:58While Thicke admitted he was inspired by Gotta Give It Up
29:01He and co-writer Pharrell Williams contended that despite their similar vibe
29:05They were essentially not the same
29:07Citing different chords, keys and more
29:15Bridgeport Music also became involved
29:17Due to claims that Blurred Lines sampled Funkadelic's sexy ways
29:26Despite lots of support from music industry heavyweights who did not believe you could copyright a feeling
29:31In 2018, a judge ordered Thicke and Williams to pay nearly 5 million dollars to Marvin Gaye's estate
29:41Number 3, Chuck Berry, Sweet Little 16 vs. The Beach Boys, Surfing USA
29:50Here's an instance where the artist openly and knowingly used the tune to an existing song for his new composition
29:59Brian Wilson wanted to write a song about surfing
30:01And felt Chuck Berry's Sweet Little 16 was the perfect setting for his surf-themed lyrics
30:06However, he neglected to credit Berry upon its recording and release
30:16Although Surfing USA was meant to be viewed as a tribute
30:19Berry's publishing company was unimpressed
30:22And forced Wilson's manager to surrender copyright to the Rock and Roll Pioneer's publisher, ARK Music
30:39We guess it takes a village to write a hit song too
30:42Before the monster hit that is Uptown Funk was even released
30:45Ronson and company offered some credit to Trinidad James
30:50After it was released, the Gap Band came knocking
30:53Claiming similarities to their Oops Upside Your Head
30:55Followed by the sequence, collage and finally zap in September of 2017
31:05Additionally, Serbian artist Victoria has alleged that the song lifts elements from one of her songs
31:10By 2018, 17% of the track's royalties were transferred to the Gap Band
31:16While the credits have ballooned from Ronson, Bruno Mars, Jeff Basker and Philip Lawrence
31:20To include six additional songwriters from their respective groups
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31:49It takes about seven notes to recognize Ice Ice Baby for what it is
31:57While the signature bass line amounts to a sample, Vanilla Ice never sought permission to use it
32:03And instead said his tinkering with the riff and adding one note made it original
32:12But in the face of legal action, the rapper caved
32:15And granted David Bowie, as well as all four members of Queen, due credit
32:19And royalties
32:27In 2013, Ice claimed to have bought under pressure outright
32:31However, the song's publishing info shows that it's co-owned by companies representing Queen, Bowie and EMI Music
32:38Making Ice's claim a bit dubious
32:45What other musical copycats did we miss? Let us know in the comments
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