Blurred Lines joins famous pop plagiarism cases

Led Zeppelin have been accused of plagiarising several of their songs.

Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams aren’t the first songwriters to be successfully sued for pop plagiarism. Here are some previous cases ...

Creep by Radiohead
Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, the writers of The Hollies' hit The Air That I Breathe successfully sued Radiohead for copyright infringement, saying the band's early hit stole the melody and rhythm of their early '70s song.

Viva La Vida by Coldplay
Guitarist Joe Satriani said the British band's stadium anthem lifted the chorus from his instrumental If I Could Fly. They settled out of court. See the comparison video here.

Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr

Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis and the News sued the theme tune composer saying it had stolen the melody of his

I Want a New Drug

. The parties eventually settled out of court.

Oasis, multiple tracks
Among the songs by the Britrock band which attracted successful lawsuits and settlements were Whatever (How Sweet to Be An Idiot by musical comedian Neil Innes) and Shakermaker (I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing by the New Seekers).

Men at Work, Down Under
A music publisher successfully sued the long disbanded Australian music group for a snatch of melody which it claimed came from the Australian nursery rhyme Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.

Led Zeppelin, multiple tracks
The band which helped turned the blues into hard rock and heavy metal were consistently getting pinged for their lifts from music history. That included Whole Lotta Love (lyrics from Willie Dixon's You Need Love), Dazed and Confused (song of the same name by Jake Holmes), Boogie with Stu (Ooh My Head by Ritchie Valens, though the Valens song has been cited as ripping off Chucky Berry's Ooh! My Soul), Bring It On Home (parts copied by Sonny Boy Williamson's Bring It On Home written by Willie Dixon) and The Lemon Song (The Killing Floor by Howlin' Wolf).

George Harrison, My Sweet Lord
Early '60s girl group The Chiffons sued Harrison for lifting the tune of He's So Fine. The judge ruled Harrison's plagiarism was unintentional. They later recorded My Sweet Lord to show there were no hard feelings.

Rod Stewart, Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Da ya think this tune sounds a bit like Brazilian Jorge Ben Jor's Taj Mahal? Apparently it did enough to make the parties settle out of court.

- nzherald.co.nz