I think Jim Jarmusch said it best. Rip off what you want, just do it cleverly and when you're truly inspired or you want just to be playful. It's the post-modern era bitch.
Quite a bit if you're going to back up your claim that the Beatles were among the greatest thieves in musical history. I don't view influence as equivalent to theft. The examples that Swedenman gave sound more like the former to me...
Okay, well then the Lady Madonna example you gave sounds more like the former to me, as well. It sounds like a '90s band incorporating a well-known melody from the '60s into their own sound. I mean, where do we draw the line? The chord progression in "And Your Bird Can Sing" is almost identical to the chord progression in "Sorrow", but that's just chalked up to influence? Influence to me is more like borrowing basic notions of song structure, instrumentation, sound-mixing, or even tone from another artist. To me, it's only influence if describing the parallels requires something more than a cursory listen. Otherwise it falls under the umbrella of copying.
And to continue the chain (this is one of the best songs off the too-country Sea Change IMO, in fact this is me pushing the whole "rip-off" thing too far)
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