Rain
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There is a lot more room if you simply venture beyond 3 or 4 chord. Part of a phrase or a series of note may be similar, but you still have opportunities to take them somewhere entirely different.

 
oh my ... we're already getting into fusion and jazz and progressive music, now!
 

 

Rain
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Why, for example, should a group of teenager expect to become star musicians and be regarded as songwriters without first learning the basics and earning those titles? Why do we value ignorance and lack of skills so much that they become a right and a stepping stone in the quest for notoriety instead of a potential and something which should be worked upon, with time and humility, out of the spotlight?
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I think that a lot of this starts out when you are young and you learn your first riff, and your first song. It's about teaching you "music" from a known perspective, and that does not include (most teachers have no feel for it!!!), how you feel and attune to the sound of each note itself, and how you would develop that.
 
This is what you see in a child, before they even know a song! They seem to run all over the keyboard and do some weird/interesting things, but we do not know or understand how this is related to their inner selves, and IF, it is an expression, instead of anything else ... another element that is very difficult to discuss.
 
Learning things from the outside, will eventually cause these situations. There aren't many of us that did not grow up with Beatles, Who, Led Zep and many others, and inevitably a sequence of three or four notes gets used up ... but in a different context.
 
Now, for a different point of view, get a hold of Robert Wyatt's latest CD ... and you wonder how a 60 something old man can do a child ... and there it is! And I thought that at any time that anyone was trying to create a melody, Robert would instantly add something totally off its rocker and from some other planet out there! 
 
We're in a commercial society ... so why would we be upset if the lawyers went after more money? They do get a nice percentage off it for a long time, after all, and if you pile up 100 of those, you don't have to work the rest of your life?
 
In the end, it is the youngsters that suffer and are being intimidated into not playing or learn music ... and to me, that is evil and unjustified and should be stopped. However, like any artist, we all want to be paid, but I can tell you that robbing someone's inspiration would never be justified. If I were Jeff or Tom, I would wait for the next album and see if there was a lot more ripoffs in there. If there were, then the suit would be justified, but a one off is not and the judges and lawyers should have told Tom and Jeff to go get ****ed!
 
Regardless of Tom's feelings and note, he doesn't need the money and should not be flaunting his strength across the board. Or Jeff Lynne, although I doubt that he is as well off as Tom, and probably could use a few more nickels in his coffer ... but what we paying for? Their 15th Century cuisine utensils?
 
Give it a break!