[Smt-talk] Music Plagiarism Cases

[David Huff]

Another "bizarre" example of plagiarism litigation is the suit that Saul Zaentz brought against John Fogerty. Zaentz, whose record label Fantasy Records held the copy and publishing rights to the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog, essentially accused Fogerty of plagiarizing *himself*, claiming that Fogerty's song "Old Man Down The Road" from his solo album Centerfield used material from the Creedence song "Run Through The Jungle" (a tune written by Fogerty).

Apparently Fogerty had to take the stand with a guitar in hand to demonstrate the differences between the songs (both his own compositions). His defense was successful and he even countersued for expenses.


David Huff
Teaching Fellow - UNT College of Music
Audio Preservationist - UNT Music Library
David.Huff at unt.edu


On Dec 18, 2009, at 6:22 AM, Richard Lewis wrote:

> Dear SMT,
> 
> This question may be better directed at law scholars, but a colleague
> is interested in finding cases of music plagiarism which have been
> heard in court (in any country, but English or German proceedings will
> be easiest to read). Anyone know of any?
> 
> Best,
> Richard
> -- 
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> Richard Lewis
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