KEY POINTS:
John Key has found himself in hot water with EMI Records after a promotional DVD featured a song nearly identical to Coldplay's hit single Clocks.
While Key has been left red-faced by the blunder, he is not the first person to fall foul of the music industry's strict copyright laws.
Indeed, even superstars like Beyonce have been accused of musical plagiarism.
We took a trawl through the archives to see just who else is guilty of playing copycats.
FOX TELEVISION - FAMILY GUY
Earlier this year, Fox Television was sued by the owner of When You Wish Upon a Star, for parodying the song in the Family Guy episode When You Wish Upon a Weinstein.
The song's owner was reportedly irate about what it described as an unseemly and anti-Semitic ballad.
AVRIL LAVIGNE
Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne was sued by two American songwriters this year, who claimed her chart-topping hit Girlfriend was a rip-off of their 1978 track I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend.
Tommy Dunbar, founder of the Rubinoos, filed the suit in California's Northern Federal District Court in San Francisco on July 2.
MALCOLM MCLAREN
Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren was sued in 2005 by a French musician who claimed the producer plagiarised his work, to create the song About Her, which featured on the Kill Bill soundtrack.
Benjamin Beduneau, aka, Lancelot, claimed he wrote the song and that Mr McLaren stole his composition.
BEYONCE
In 2005, Beyonce was sued by singer/songwriter Jennifer Armour, who claims the Bootylicious star copied her lyrics and musical hook for the song Baby Boy.
Armour claimed Beyonce copied her song Got a Little Bit of Love for You, which she wrote in 2003.
JIVE RECORDS
'N Sync label Jive Records was sued this year by musician Troy Alexander who alleged the label stole his song Up Against the Wall and gave it to the boy band.
Alexander claimed to have sent a demo tape with the song to Jive Records in 1990.
11 years later, 'N Sync released the song by the same name on their album Celebrity.
- NZHERALD STAFF
