and whose tune did Tom and Jeff plagiarize?
 
I don't think you can write a top 40 tune and not borrow from some other writer before you.
 
 

Recently I've started noticing tons of melody fragments in songs that sound like they've been lifted from existing songs. What usually happens is that I will start whistling the newer song, and what comes out is the older song. I'm never sure if it's intentional or whether it's just that melodies are bound to get recycled sooner or later. Last night I was listening to the excellent "Harmonise" by Herbert, and there's the instantly recognizable melody from Madness's "House of Fun" in there. And in "Those Feelings" from the same Herbert album, I can hear a Zepplin song off Physical Graffiti (can't think of which right now). Personally I can't imagine taking it personally to the point where if sue someone. It's just a few freaking notes.

Who he?
Sam Smith is probably the best contemporary falsetto singer working anywhere.
 
Actually publishers do not notice anything. There are bots that search the web looking for anything that remotely resembles a copyrighted recording and can generate their own cease and desist or takedown demands without human intervention. There is a new business model based on copyright harassment that funds companies that use these bots. That is how they generate demands for advertising revenue on YouTube when someone incidentally records a seagull in the background of his beach volleyball video, and the copyright harassment company represents a sea shanty album that features a gull call intro on one song. It costs very little to demand royalties, and the average composer/performer has no resources to fight the claim. If you think there are infinite possibilities for melodic lines--think again. They are only infinite if you do not confine yourself to comprehensible western scales and chord structures. 

What a crock. Almost always is. How many other artists are paying Hank William's estate for almost every known country tune written since his passing?? Get a grip.

there are only 12 notes in the Western Scale, certainly finite.
 
You are going to recycle phrases and notes, no way around it.

I'm w/ Randy on this one. He wouldn't have been bothered if it were just the melody. Or just the phrasing. But melody AND phrasing?
 
I know firsthand that this can be unintentional. Personally, when I realized it had happened, I gave up on the songs. Had they been released, I guess I would have respectfully acknowledged the similarities and try to come with an agreement. 
 
They didn't throw him in jail or put an end to his career or anything. His song is still a hit - if anything, this got him media attention.
 
I had no idea who he was before that - I know it may sound weird, but not knowing that Tom Petty song is probably just as weird.
 
The fact that it's hard to come up with something original does not mean that people should just do whatever and forget about acknowledging things like that. 
 

Then, of course, there's this...
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ
 
 

I think it is impossible to tell if it is intentional. The fact that NOBODY would confuse those songs. The song is popular because it uses common ballad theme, structure and he fills the gap of falsetto crooner. It sounds familiar because many pop songs created in a twelve not system just do. I'm  all for protecting artists against blatant ripoffs but this sets a dangerous precedent. Trends in copyright law in the past couple of decades reflect greed just as much as they reflect intellectual property rights.  If i dig deep enough, I can find an equivelent level of familiarity of most songs to another song. 

The thing is that pop music is "evolving" into something that is simpler and simpler, so obviously, when music boils down to 12 bars, 4 chords and a simplistic melody with a narrow choice of instruments, you're out of fresh options pretty soon. If you adhere to standards and formula, you can't complain when you're called out.
 
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.
 
 
 
 

I agree that pop music is simple, but should we be rewarding people for pretty much doing the same thing?  The fact that it is such a simple musical phrase means petty himself gave into the urge to use simple pop cliches too. If anything, one should hold the rights to things so unique that odds of someone making something similar are astronimical. The purpose of intellectual property rights are to protect the unique and not necessarily to give ownership to basic things based on who's lawyer figured a way to own it first.