Jason Isbell vs. Dierks Bentley

[Tiki Torches]

This Whole Dierks Bentley Ripping off Jason Isbell Thing (from Saving CountryMusic.com)

[surfpirate]

In order to be able to leave Creedence Clearwater Revival,
John Fogerty had to sign away all of his royalties in CCR’s stable of songs.

Years later a suit was filed claiming that Fogerty's song on his comeback solo album Centerfield,
"The Old Man Down the Road", was a replica of a CCR song; "Run Through the Jungle".

Essentially, John Fogerty was now being accused of plagiarizing himself.

It took a visit to the court with guitar in hand by John Fogerty in order to settle the case.
After hearing the song played for them in court, the jury decided that the two songs
were not the same, the only thing they shared is the same style
and that was not a copyright/plagiarism issue.

John Fogerty considered this a very important case
as it would have bearing on whether an artist could continue on in his or her own style
once having signed over rights to their creations.

[Tiki Torches]

I just posted this in another thread but it's still well worth watching even if you're not a Todd Snider fan. It's him telling the story of how Garth Brooks stole "Beer Run" from him and how he handled it.

[txaggirl91]

Toby Keith ripped "Bullets in the Gun" from Robert Earl Keen (the Road Goes on Forever).

Rather than suing, REK just wrote a song about Keith - called the Road Goes On and On.

This is what REK said about it: (http://www.austin360.com/music/robert-e ... 98459.html)

"Melodically, it's not dead on top of it, but cadence-wise and story-wise, it's taken out of (Keen's song) "The Road Goes On Forever."

I had a choice to hit back with some kind of lawsuit. But my mother was a lawyer, and I watched people waste their lives in lawsuits. God bless all the lawyers in the world, but I think lawsuits are a waste of life.

So, since I wasn't about to sue him, so I thought I'd answer in kind. I just wanted to say, stop with the nonsense. So I wrote him a song. It's no different than Kitty Wells or Hank Thompson singing "(It Wasn't God Who Made) Honky-Tonk Angels" or classic literary characters like Alexander Pope or Jonathan Swift answering people. You answer them in the way you know how to best answer. There's a precedent in literature and music for doing that, so that's what I did."

[Tiki Torches]

Toby Keith ripped "Bullets in the Gun" from Robert Earl Keen (the Road Goes on Forever).

Rather than suing, REK just wrote a song about Keith - called the Road Goes On and On.

Not sure if you watched the Todd Snider clip above but that's basically what he did with "Tomorrow Never Comes", the original author of which claimed to have also have written "Beer Run". In the case of Isbell vs. Bentley (which hasn't actually gone to court yet, at least as far as I know) it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. In the meantime, most of the comments sections accompanying articles about the dispute are full of alt.country fans vs. the mainstream country fans.