A judge in New York has tossed a suit filed by a UK musician claiming that U2 based a portion of The Fly from the Irish group's Achtung Baby! album on a song he'd written. Paul Rose initiated the suit last year, contending that a 12 second guitar part played by The Edge in the U2 song matched up too closely to a 13 second portion of his song Nae Slappin to be coincidental. Judge Denise Cote ruled that The Fly doesn't "recreate the notes, sounds or rhythms of the plaintiff's work in a way that would permit a finding that the copying was sufficiently close to find infringement under the fragmented literal similarity doctrine."
Billboard.com
