An oldie but goodie:

Vanilla Ice was sued by the remaining members of Queen for stealing the riff from the 1981 Queen/David Bowie song "Under Pressure" for "Ice, Ice Baby". Vanilla Ice insisted the riff was differentiated by a whole extra beat! (Idiot.) As you can guess, he lost in court.

Another oldie:

Tone Loc was said to have used the opening drum beat in "Wild Thing" from the Van Halen song, "Jamie's Crying", without permission. Not sure if he lost or if it was settled out of court.

And a weird one:

John Fogarty, who was in Credence Clearwater Revival, was sued by...himself! In an odd case, the other members sued Fogarty for using some music and/or lyrics he had sung in one of his earlier songs with the group for his 1986 song, "The Old Man Down The Road".

George Harrison was sued for "plagarizing" He's So Fine" for "My Sweet Lord." He was found guilty of copyright infringement even though it was conceded that it wasn't deliberate. After the case was settled former Beatles manager Allen Klein purchased the rights to "He's So Fine" and continued to sue for damages.

George summed up his feelings: "I even tried to give 'My Sweet Lord' away to get the thing settled -- just let 'em have it, it doesn't matter to me. I've never had any money from it -- it's always been in escrow -- and as far as I'm concerned the effect the song has had far exceeds any bitching that's been going on between copyright people; it's just greed and jealousy and all that."

Personally, I can't stand "He's So Fine" (do lang do lang) and I really like "My Sweet Lord".

Edited February 10, 200818 yr by applcin

Does anyone know legally how many measures equal theft? That is - what's the criterion here?

Does Destiny's Child "Bootylicious" sample Fleetwood Mac's "Edge of Seventeen"?

just the begining part. listen to it

It's sampled throughout the entire song.

Well if we're thinking Andrew lloyd Webber his infamous for lifting huge themes from Puccinni--in Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of love the most as well as Memory. He also ALWAYS steals from himself but I assume that's allowed (Stephen Schwartz of Wicked, Pippin, Baker's Wife fame is guilty of that too)

"Does anyone know legally how many measures equal theft? That is - what's the criterion here? "

I think when it's uncredited. In the case of Bootlyicious that was obviously a bought, credited and agreed upon sample