Coldplay in the Hot Seat Again

Remember that kid in 3rd grade who one person swore they saw picking their nose in class and then suddenly everyone recalled having seen them pick their nose at some point? And then it becomes a thing: Bobby Mc8-Year-Old was a finger cave explorer. And who could ever really know if he was the habitual nasal gold-digger he was made out to be or if he was just a kid who happened to scratch his nose one day and got unfortunately branded? Perhaps such is the case with Coldplay, who, after two years of copyright infringement lawsuits, find themselves in the hot seat once again. In 2007, Brooklyn indie rockers Creaky Boards accused Chris Martin and company of ripping off one of their songs to pen “Viva La Vida”. The next year, guitarist Joe Satriani filed a claim on the same song, this time saying the British band stole the tune from a 2004 song of his. This year’s infringement suit comes from the super-unknown Sammie Lee Smith. Smith says he wrote “Yellow” and “Clocks”, among others. And here’s the part that will make you give ol’ Sammie Lee the major skeptical side-eye: the songs in question are supposedly all recorded on cassettes. That are in Smith’s personal possession. That Coldplay has never heard. Seriously? All this crying “lawsuit!” has me wondering: are Coldplay just the biggest victims of their melodically middle-of-the-road tunes; when so many songs could sound similar to yours but yours becomes the hit, how can you avoid being the subject of perhaps unfair playground attacks and labeling? Or maybe they did rip everyone off. Shrug. Tell it to the judge, Coldplay.