<P> During the drawn - out damages portion of the US suit, events played into Harrison's hands when Klein's ABKCO Industries finally purchased the copyright to "He's So Fine", and with it all litigation claims, after which Klein proceeded to negotiate sale of the song to Harrison . On 19 February 1981, the court decided that due to Klein's duplicity in the case, Harrison would only have to pay ABKCO $587,000 instead of the $1.6 million award and he would also receive the rights to "He's So Fine"--$587,000 being the amount Klein had paid Bright Tunes for the song in 1978 . The court ruled that the former manager's actions had been in breach of the fiduciary duty owed to Harrison, a duty that continued "even after the principal--agent relationship ended". The litigation continued through to the early 1990s, however, as the finer points of the settlement were ironed out; in his 1993 essay on Bright Tunes v. Harrisongs, Joseph Self describes it as "without question, one of the longest running legal battles ever to be litigated in (the United States)". Matters would not ultimately be concluded until March 1998 . </P> <P> Subsequent charges of plagiarism in the music industry have resulted in a policy of swift settlement and therefore limited damage to an artist's credibility: the Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?", Oasis' "Shakermaker", "Whatever" and "Step Out", and the Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" are all examples of songs whose writing credits were hastily altered to acknowledge composers of a potentially plagiarised work, with the minimum of litigation . </P> <P> Shortly before the ruling was handed down in September 1976, Harrison wrote and recorded a song inspired by the court case--the upbeat "This Song"--which includes the line "This tune has nothing' Bright' about it". The 1960s soul hits "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" and "Rescue Me", as well as his own composition "You", are all name - checked in the lyrics, as if to demonstrate the point that, as he later put it, "99% of the popular music that can be heard is reminiscent of something or other ." </P> <P> In a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, John Lennon expressed his doubts about the notion of "subconscious" plagiarism, saying: "He must have known, you know . He's smarter than that...He could have changed a couple of bars in that song and nobody could ever have touched him, but he just let it go and paid the price . Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off ." Ringo Starr's reaction was more charitable: "There's no doubt that the tune is similar but how many songs have been written with other melodies in mind? George's version is much heavier than The Chiffons--he might have done it with the original in the back of his mind, but he's just very unlucky that someone wanted to make it a test case in court ." </P>

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