Did Guns N’ Roses Steal "Sweet Child O’ Mine" From An Obscure Australian Band?

[cemaphonic]

1. Ugh, I knew that horrible Blurred Lines vs Got to Give it Up ruling was going to unleash this.

The two songs basically just share the same chord progression. The vocal melody (especially the first phrase) is kinda similar, but the copyright office has very precise standards about what constitutes "too similar," and I doubt this would qualify.

Other than that, the arrangement is completely different, the chorus is different, the solos are nothing alike. It's just the same damn chord progression, and one that is unusual enough in pop music (though very common in blues and various flavors of folk music) to be memorable.

Current copyright law is already overly restrictive to music creation. Allowing "it sorta sounds like another song" to be seriously proposed as a valid copyright claim is a terrible road to go down.