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"Sweet Child O 'Mine" is plagiarized?


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I don't think there's any statute of limitations on this, as far as court is concerned. I remember that a few years ago the band Men at Work got sued by the heirs of an Australian nursery rhyme for "Land Down Under." The composer herself apparently didn't mind, but when she died her family went after the band, and it was nearly 30 years after the song had been released. The family won, and now MaW has to pay some royalties from the song to the composer's family.

Having said that, though, it seems that most plagiarism decisions take into account how much of the pieces as a whole resemble each other. These two songs have some similaries but overall they're absolutely not the same at all...not any more than many songs use the same chord progressions or pay "homage" to each other. And it seems that most of the time it's not pursued. There seems to be a bit of wiggle room with this one.

Edited by stella
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In the USA it's the life of the author + 70 years, and in joint compositions that's +70 years from the death of the last surviving author. So if the last author of the Australian band were to die in, say, 2055, the copyright on their song in the USA wouldn't be up until at least 2125. And that's assuming the laws aren't changed again to further extend copyright.

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Can anybody in Australia ask Australian Crawl about Sweet Child? Or they are still too afraid of David G. to speak?

I just did a quick check, and while half the band are now dead, one if the 2 co- writers of the song is a guy called James Reyne. He is still around and is still relatively well known here in Australia. He might be contactable.

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Well, James Reyne is at least aware of the similarities. Going through a fan forum I came across someone giving a song by song rundown from a concert last year, and this is a quote about the song...

Unpublished Critics (another great song I hadn't heard live before, excellent guitar work from Burgs, with a little bit of Sweet Child O' Mine thrown in for good measure haha)

Read more: http://jamesreyne.freeforums.net/thread/285/james-reyne-plays-australian-crawl?page=6#ixzz3OvXBqzNr

And from a concert reviewer:

Thanks James, now Ill always sing Sweet Child o Mine to Unpublished Critics as you were right, its almost identical but regardless, cool song to throw in the set.

So he is aware of it, and actually using Sweet Child as part of the song live.

Edited by uncivil war
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  • 3 months later...

So well this is a song by some Australian band, the Chord progression sounds similar to Sweet Child, your thoughts? I guess back in 1999 or 2000 some south american artist claimed that GNR stole Don't cry from him even though that song dint sound like Dont cry at all

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/sweet-child-o-mine-australian-crawl/

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Given the amount of music that has been published and the amount of indie bands etc. who make music, I believe in the theory that you can't write an original song anymore. Every chord, motif, theme, hook, etc. at one point in time will have been played. The only difference is what style you apply and how it works and is arranged in your song. So for every huge hit, you'll most likely find something that resembles it.

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Put times like these from the foo fighters over sweet child total ripp off haha. Naa just the same chords. Everyone has played those three a four chords are in almost all the songs out there. So it isnt possible for something to sound fresh. It's 2015. simpsons did it. Simpsons did it

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I like the way GN'R could be facing a lawsuit just because medias are talking about this.

Is there a lawsuit pending about this? As I mentioned in the older thread, the singer from Australian Crawl has been using Sweet Child as an intro for the other song in his solo show for ages, so it's not as if it's new information to them.

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James Reyne of Australian Crawl commented after Australian blog Max TV highlighted the similarities between his band's 'Unpublished Critics' and the huge worldwide hit.

"[‘Unpublished Critics’ has] the same chugging chord progression, a similarly-sweeping lead break, the verse melody, and the elongated one-syllable vocal in the chorus,” wrote Australian blog Max TV of the similarities.

'Unpublished Critics' is taken from the Australian band’s album 'Sirocco', which came out in 1981 on Geffen Records, six years before Guns N' Roses released 'Sweet Child O’ Mine' on the same label.

Australian Crawl singer James Reyne told Daily Mail Australia that it is "not inconceivable" that Guns N' Roses heard the song first, but added, "I'm not about to take on the might of the Guns N' Roses lawyers".
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/guns-n-roses/85297?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=gunsnroses#1mHtM2uuDvjmvvup.99

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