It’s easy to close your eyes while listening to music and remember exactly where you were the first time you heard those magical musical notes. Music has the power to evoke memories of the sights, smells and emotions that you were going through when a certain song played.

Music is a powerful tool and it always has been, and we frequently see cases being taken to court on the basis of copyright infringement,

Robin Thicke and Pharrell <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/pulse/blurred-lines-copied-song-other-famous-music-copyright-cases-1843726">lost</a> their battle, leaving them left to pay over $7 million to Marvin Gaye’s children. Vanilla Ice settled out of court for sampling Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” and the artists were also given song writing credits, thus received royalties thereafter.

The Verve lost all rights to their hit song “Bittersweet Symphony”, because even though they had permission to use part of The Rolling Stones song “The Last Time” they were later sued by the label and lost publishing rights to The Rolling Stones.

That’s not to mention the likes of Avril Lavigne, Rod Stewart, Coldplay and Radiohead that have been to court for copyright infringements. Even Johnny Cash was forced to pay <a href="http://www.fuse.tv/2013/07/famous-songs-sued-plagiarism#1">up</a>, there was a battle between The Beatles and Chuck Berry. After John Fogerty left Creedence Clearwater Revival he was <a href="http://www.fuse.tv/2013/07/famous-songs-sued-plagiarism#6">sued</a> for plagiarising… himself. He later won.

Most recently, though, Led Zeppelin were <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/jury-could-rewrite-history-led-zeppelins-epic-stairway-043151757.html?ref=gs">cleared</a> by a California judge, who sided with them that they had not sampled a riff for the intro to their legendary “Stairway to Heaven”.

You see, copyright issues aren’t new they have been going on for as long as the music industry has been a business, though copyright laws weren’t applicable on recordings made prior to 1978.

As artists continue to innovate and come up with new ideas, there are plenty of musicians who want to pay homage to artists that have inspired them. It’s a sticky situation, though, which is why musicians should always obtain permission for any samples they might wish to use.

Big artists will continue to sample, or downright steal, from smaller artists and they will continue settling out of court. Every once in a while, though, we are “treated” to two big names battling against each other for supremacy.

The truth is it’s difficult to come up with entirely original ideas in music because it feels like everything has been done. Look at how many artists make their career by just covering the works of others. Look at the YouTube channels of fledgling musicians covering songs from their favorites, and the big time musicians who cover others on their tours.

So much of music throughout history is musicians giving a nod of appreciation to other musicians. Which is why when copyright infringement cases come along it’s generally down to the fact that there has been no nod to the artist who provided the basis for it.