Coldplay and Satriani lawsuit already settled?

Various internet sources are already suggesting that the pending lawsuit between Coldplay and Joe Satriani may already be over. You can discuss this latest news on the Coldplay / Joe Satriani lawsuit at the Coldplay forum here onwards [thanks RedGirl76]. This from TechDirt:

The main event was supposed to be the lawsuit between Coldplay and Satriani -- scheduled to take place early next year. It looks like that's not happening. Blaise points to a blog post noting that the two sides, appear to have come to a settlement.

There aren't any details yet, just filings to dismiss the case, signed by both parties, suggesting a settlement has been reached. At this point, it's not at all clear what that settlement means, but the most likely scenario is that Coldplay handed over some cash to make Satriani go away. In the end, that's really too bad, as it would have been quite an interesting court case. Without an official ruling on the matter, we can expect to see other, similar lawsuits filed in the future, every time some musician gets jealous of another musician for using a similar melody.

Late last year, Joe Satriani sued Coldplay, claiming that the band's song Viva La Vida violated the copyright on his song, If I Could Fly. This resulted in all sorts of back and forth arguments, and eventually the realization that a bunch of other songs -- even many that predated Satriani's -- were quite similar. In fact, Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens later jumped in claiming that a song of his from the 70s was the real inspiration for the Coldplay song. Oddly... rather than recognize that this proved Satriani wrong, Islam insisted that he was going to see how Satriani did in court. He later claimed that he forgave Coldplay, even if there's no evidence at all that they actually copied -- and he admitted to coming up with song melodies that were first done elsewhere.

Joe Satriani had hoped that the pending copyright case with Coldplay would be settled "quietly behind closed doors," he claimed recently via an online article in Australia's Sunday edition of the Herald Sun.

"It's one of those things that I am not really at liberty to discuss the juicy parts," he says, as the case makes its way through the US courts. "It's not really something that should have been public. It's a minor tiff between musicians that had we been in the same band it never would have made it out of the rehearsal room. But it's complicated by the fact that we are not in the same band. But neither Coldplay nor myself are comfortable discussing the details and we hope we can take care of it quietly behind closed doors."

The legal dispute remains unresolved since Satriani filed suit in December, although Coldplay members have hotly denied his contention. But Howard King, Satriani's lawyer, said Coldplay has hired a high-profile legal firm in California to handle the suit after it became clear that the group's appearance at the 2009 Grammys in Los Angeles could be marred by the embarrassment of having the legal documents served on them publicly.

"We did have some service challenges, but once we made it known we were going to serve them at the Grammys ... they had a lawyer contact us, who agreed to accept service on their behalf," King said.

Both sides have set a tentative trial date for spring 2010, but King said they'll also hold "private mediation" talks in late July. "Cases like this either go to trial and have unpredictable and sometimes devastating results for one side or the other ... or get resolved behind closed doors. There is going to be an attempt in late July to see if the case is capable of being resolved behind closed doors," King said. Russell Frackman, representing Coldplay, had no comment.

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