Oasis

They are really successfull in the UK, no so much in the USA or the rest of the world. I just saw a documentary which pointed out the similarities some of their songs have with others! They have been caught stealing riffs a few times and some of their other songs have uncanny resemblenses to famous beatles and t-rex songs.
Is there any other big bands that have famously been introuble for the same thing?

Well, you cant really say they were "caught" as Noel has admitted similarities in more songs than other people have discovered, such as "Step Out" where Noel admitted in an interview it had a similar chorus to Stevie Wonders "Uptight", when Stevie heard of this he demanded writing credits. Noel wasnt having that so he pulled the song from the album(was due to be on Whats The Story Morning Glory) and put it as a bside, reducing Stevies credit for a song on a multi-million selling album to a mere royalty check for a bside.

I know Led Zeppelin were much more blatently guilty of stealing, except they tried to pass whole other peoples songs off as their own. Jimmy Page would steal old blues songs and put his own name in the credits, and Ive heard the rest of the band were dead against it. off the top of my head it includes "Whole Lotta Love" which is heavily drawn from a Willie Dixon song, Babe Im Gonna Leave You, a folk song by Anne Bredon and White Summer, which is She Moves Through The Fair, drawn from Davey Grahams folk guiitar arrangement. Also the intro for Stairway to heaven is supposedly lifted from a Christian bands song, I think theres a list at ledzeppelin.org, but im not sure. I read the list and theres alot of songs, Communication Breakdown is an Eddie Cochran song, Nervous Breakdown. I agree Oasis are just as big plagiarists, but Noel is proud of his influences and admits them, unlike Mr Page. Great guitarist tho, so I forgive him :)

wow! I never new that! does that affect your opinion of them as a band? I new stairway to heaven intro was copied, which is kinda shocking!

This webpage (click here) sums up LZ's nefarious past pretty well. Even the name came from someone outside the band. Jimmy Page is a great, very influential guitarist and producer, but the man has less moral fibre than your average felon.

Listen to Lenny Kravitz's stuff. I know one of his riffs is a direct copy of LZ's Heartbreaker, or sounds like it anyway. This is really nothing new, though. You're bound to "borrow" from time to time, for "there is nothing new under the sun." How many times have you come up with what sounds like a cool riff or chord progression, only to have someone say, "Oh that sounds just like that Led Zeppelin song" or whatever? This really comes down to the philosophical paradox of invention: How can you come up with something "new," when, in order for it to make sense to people, it has to follow a familiar form? Things that make you say "Hmmmmmmmmm . . . . . ."

how profound... i suppose its the difference between consciously ripping off someones material and unconciously doing it.

It affected my opinion of Led Zeppelin at the time, but then again it was around the time I became interested in Guns N' Roses in a big way, and my tastes were naturally changing> I was shocked at the time, but I got over it. Zeps brilliance was in the recordings of their songs, the way Stairway builds and builds, use of dynamics etc. I look at them as really good record producers now :) Alot of the music I listen to is well-produced, or has interesting studio tricks, thats the type of thing I like learning about, and am currently trying to learn about. And Zeppelin were very good at it, they had 2 great producers in Page and JPJ

The name for Led Zeppelin came from Keith Moon when he said "that band is as good as a lead balloon"(or something along those lines). So Page used it, kind of a bold move.

Yeah i think its ok to come up with something that sounds like another bands style. If you have several influences them you have your own sound, a mixture of the bands before you.
I do that all the time, come up with a totaly origonal riff but then sit and stress over wether it sounds like something before me!

Hasent everyone ripped off metallica's songs...or at least so they say... :)

Metallica over-use several techniques to the point of which they probably claim them as there own! heavily palm muted E5 chord for example!

Originally posted by PonyOne
Godsmack wishes it was Alice In Chains; progressions, riffs, and lyrics stolen from AIC songs, plus their name was also the name of an AIC song. But they admitted it, so they get off...

Finally?

I still want to light them on fire and taunt them with gasoline.

Yea, but Godsmack has gotten away from doing that on their latest album.