Just heard the new Green Day track 21 Guns and thought it sounded alot like Say It Ain't So by Weezer. How do bands get away with doing this without getting sued? Another one that comes to mind is Metallica/Breadfan and Chili Peppers/Around the World.

Sometimes they don't have a problem with it. Michael Jackson told Daryl Hall he took the bass line from "I Can't Go for That" for "Billie Jean," and Hall had no issue with it. Eddie Van Halen also told him he copied the synth part from "Kiss on My List" for "Jump." He said it was something they all do. Tom Petty didn't mind the similarities between "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Dani California." He also didn't mind the Strokes taking "American Girl" for "Last Nite."

The Green Day song isn't really a copy of the Weezer song, so I don't think they'd sue. To me, it kind of sounds more like Neil Young's "Heart of Gold."

The latest abomination of a Papa Roach song is a blatant rip off of the Keane song "Everything's Changing"

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Led Zeppelin did so many I couldn't even begin to name them all and go into heavy details, this kind of sums it up though, http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html

vanilla ice- ice ice baby from queen- under pressure

madonna- beautiful stranger from love- she comes in colours

horrors- count in fives from we the people- my brother the man

duran duran- planet earth from japan- quiet life

I wouldnt really count the Vanilla Ice song or any rap songs as they are just taking samples from the original songs themselves and using it as their own.

No, not a complete copy like the riff the Chili Peppers took fom Metallica's Breadfan, but the chorus does sound similar to Say It Ain't So.

nah guess not come to think of it, but it was funny to hear him trying to say how different it sounded

I thought Breadfan was a song by Budgie, shouldn't they be getting the credit instead of Metallica?

Flaming Lips - Fight Test is a rip off of Cat Stevens - Father & Son
The lips did this on accident and gave Cat half

yeah, it is. I also don't hear the relation between the two.

I meant to the song Around the World by the chili peppers. Metallica just did a metal cover of Breadfan by Budgie.

so Around the World by rhcp sounds like Breadfan (Metallica's version)? if it's the bass intro or whatever, then I'd say it's a stretch....but still know what you mean.......now.

I know Sum 41 on their song "Bitter End" ripped off "Damage Inc" by Metallica. Almost note for note. They did the same for a Coldplay song (so close to the original that someone did an mp3 of each song in one speaker and it was just about the same song).

Zeppelin is the first band I thought of.

I found it:

http://89xradio.com/USerFiles/myfiles/coldsum.mp3

Try 'all the young dudes'. Choruses are ridiculously similar.

Like a few of you, my first thought was OH you mean Zeppelin's entire career.

... just as their song "Last Resort" rips off a guitar riff from the Iron Maiden instrumental "Genghis Khan".

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Listen to 1:45 on.

Metallica totally ripped off the song "Rainbow Warrior" by NWOBHM band Bleak House for "(Welcome Home) Sanitarium." (Hear a comparison here)

A country singer -- can't remember her name, she's the one that sang that "Redneck Woman" song -- ripped one of her songs off from The Black Crowes' "Jealous Again." They've taken legal action.

I seem to recall the Marcy Playground song "Sex & Candy" having a ( I believe) the same bass riff as the one in "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins.

The chorus to Brian Setzer's "5 Years, 4 Months, 3 Days" sounds a bit like Dave Dudley's "Six Days On The Road".

What, no mention of Gramming winning Coldplay ripping off Satriani yet?

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I can't think of the songs right now, but I've heard the guitar riff from Back in Black in a couple songs.

Yeah, that one is blatant, but I love their version anyway.

That wasn't just sampling, though, and Ice was forced to settle ensuing legal case against him for plagiarizing. I think that's a clear cut a case of song theft.

To answer the OP, as evidenced by "Ice Ice Baby," sometimes these artists do get sued. It seems to be less common for older songs that did this, maybe because there was less of a culture of litigation. Maybe, though, it had to do with most artists being so restricted in what control and recourse they had to protect their own careers vis a vis their own labels that the notion of suing another artist wasn't considered worth it.

I remember buying Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles and the liner notes mentioned that the track that Chet Atkins played on was a song where The Beatles had originally taken his guitar licks. Later, on Clint Black's "Ode to Chet," Mr. Guitar mentioned his own frequent habit of "not stealing," but "borrowing [guitar licks] and forgetting where [he] got [them]."

I think Stone Temple Pilots ripped off "Picture Book" by The Kinks for their song "Big Bang Baby". The riff is the exact same, and I don't think STP credited the Kinks for it.

I also hear The Beatles "Here There and Everywhere" in Diana Ross's "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)"