Coldplay’s music is about as unconfrontational as a banana. And yet somehow, their entire career has been plagued with criticism and controversy from the music world and beyond.

Aside form vicious accusations of being “soft-rock” and the next U2 (which, I have to point out, aren’t exactly negative qualities when you are raking in millions of dollars and married to Gwenyth Paltrow), Coldplay were accused last year of ripping off said soft-rock from Deep Purple, no less.

The lawsuit was filed in December by none other than guitar god Joe Satriani, who claimed Coldplay padded their massive hit “Viva la Vida” with large parts of his song “If I Could Fly.”

This happened last December and it took until now for the band to settle up with Satriani. Although Coldplay will not have to admit any wrongdoing, according to the confirmed reports on Billboard.com, the judge has settled the case under an undisclosed stipulation. Essentially, this translates to Coldplay handing over a sum of cash in exchange for Satriani’s compliance.

It’s a highly less climatic outcome in one of the more publicized cases of musical theft, so to speak, but this move will likely be more lucrative for Satriani than actually releasing another album.

Related posts:

1. Coldplay Forced to Postpone Concert
2. Colplay Responds To Plagiarism Claim
3. Coldplay To Release New EP In December, New Album Next Year