Coldplay’s latest single, “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall” had been released for only hours, if not minutes, when accusations of plagiarism surfaced from all corners.

It only takes listening to the first few seconds of the new Coldplay song to recognise the striking similarity between it and the opening melody of the piano riff of the 1976 song performed by Peter Allan, “I Go To Rio”.

According to Coldplay’s press release, Chris Martin, the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist, in fact collaborated with the writers of the song I Go To Rio, Peter Allen and Adrienne Anderson, and the duo also has a writing credit on Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. On their website, Coldplay wrote: “Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall contains elements of I Go To Rio written by Peter Allen and Adrienne Anderson” (http://www.coldplay.com/disco/lyrics_everyteardropisawaterfall.html).

Under South African law, giving accreditation to the owners of the original copyright work is not sufficient to escape a possible infringement claim. Coldplay would have had to get authorisation from the original copyright owners to reproduce or adapt the musical work in the way that they did. It seems, at least on Coldplay’s version, that this had been done.
Interestingly, this is not the first plagiarism finger pointed at Coldplay. In 2008, they were accused of copying a song by Joe Satriani. Coldplay insisted that the similarities were coincidental, and the case was settled out of court. Coldplay has also been accused of copying a song by Cat Stevens and a music video by singer-songwriter Dan Gallagher. Neither claim seemed to have resulted in litigation.
Coldplay is, however, clearly being watched, or closely listened to, and it seems that with the release of a Coldplay single comes a possible downpour of copyright infringement accusations...every teardrop indeed a waterfall.

Written by Werina Griffiths - Senior Associate - Trade Marks Department - Adams & Adams
Tel: 012 432 6000