The whole issue of copying/ripping off music is a tricky one. I previously wrote a list on songs that sound the same, but there are certainly many more.
In the case of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” (which is really Queen’s “Under Pressure), Shaggy’s “Angel” (which is actually Steve Miller’s “The Joker”), and that rapper that ‘ripped off’ “Stand By Me” quite recently, I wouldn’t count these as “rip offs”; they’re sampling. Whether that is right or wrong remains up to you. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it as long as they credit the original artist. My brother told me a story that Vanilla Ice claimed the riff was completely different because “it has a hi-hat!”. Which, obviously, is bullshit.
Some people don’t like sampling because it isn’t original. I understand that viewpoint. But if they change it enough so that it doesn’t sound like the original song, then I think that’s alright. The people who still don’t like this are the people who don’t consider rap to be “music”. Me? I am going to say yes, rap is music. If there are instruments electronically generated melodies, then it’s music. If it’s just someone talking, then it’s spoken word, and not really music. If it’s just someone talking but also doing the instrument sounds with their voice, that is music; it’s called acappella.
Then we have artists who rip themselves off, reusing a riff or lyric every once in awhile. Pete Townshend does this a lot in terms of riffs. Ringo Starr uses a lot of Beatle allusions in his solo stuff. There’s nothing wrong with this. The whole riff thing I see as the artist trying to perfect it. They probably wrote this cool riff, but didn’t know what to do it, so they threw it in any old song. Later on, they made it better or found another song that it actually worked with, and so they used it there too. That’s fine. Annoying, but fine. Annoying and not fine if they use the same riff for every song they’ve ever recorded.
Songs like Bruce Springsteen’s “Racing in the Street” are not ripoffs. Once again, it’s an allusion to another song (“Dancing in the Street”), but this time, by another artist. And again, if they don’t try to pass the lyrics off as something they came up with, then it’s fine.
Led Zeppelin. A tricky one. A lot of their stuff, both lyrics and music, is reused from old blues songs. I’m not exactly clear on whether they give credit where credit is due, since I don’t think they credit the original artist as a songwriter/whatever. Depending on how much of the other artist’s song is used, they should be listed as a songwriter and thus receive royalties. If anything is directly lifted from another artist, there probably should be credit. If a song is simply influenced by another song, then songwriting credit shouldn’t be necessary. If they use entire verses, the original should be credited, but one line here and there? Falls under the “Racing in the Street” category.
Speaking of influenced by, then we get the soundalike songs, like “My Sweet Lord” and “He’s So Fine”. After the lawsuit, it was basically decided that George Harrison did rip of The Chiffons, but not on purpose. In this case, and in most cases like this, credit shouldn’t need to be given nor should royalties. So many songs use the same few chords, same few notes, and thus, it is inevitable that songs are going to wind up sounding like other songs.