[hackerboos]

I think many people know that this ruling is not some test-case that will unleash a wave of lawsuits.

People have been successfully sued for less than this, many times before...

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/sam-smith--tom-petty-...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_plagiarism#Cases

[3JPLW]

To me, the Sam Smith "Won't Back Down" case was much more straight-forward: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkcZV97O3pw

But that's a very simple chord progression with common vocal hits, whereas this case seems to hinge on a very distinctive bass line and percussive style.

[Lewton]

Much more straight-forward. Much closer to being the same thing.

Would still have been pretty ridiculous if a verdict had been made that this counted as copyright infringement. (They settled it amicably)

[duaneb]

Most are settled out of court. This sets a very dangerous jurisprudence precedent.