Coldplay has issued a statement in response to the lawsuit filed against the band by guitarist Joe Satriani in which he claims that Coldplay ripped off portions of his song "If I Could Fly" for the group's Grammy-nominated track "Viva La Vida".

"With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations," read the statement. "If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write the song 'Viva La Vida'. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours."

In other words, people stop suing us for this song!

Joe Satriani said he "did everything I could to avoid a court case," but claims that "Coldplay didn't want to talk about it. They just wanted this whole thing to go away. ... But we're talking about a piece of art that I created, and that's something I feel is important. I think everybody should feel that way."

According to MTV.com, Coldplay made mention of Satriani's case against them before the suit was actually filed. During a recent live taping for Yahoo.com, Coldplay singer Chris Martin said about the song, "We are being sued by about 12 people who say that we stole it, though I promise we didn't. Including ... I probably shouldn't say (laughs). I can't tell you, I can't tell you, but it rhymes with Moe Batriani."

You be the judge, did they or didn't they rip him off?