Did Coldplay Steal From Joe Satriani?

As for the "finite number of note combinations..." That's honestly a type of lie. In all seriousness, you need to factor in the number of instruments, time signature, the song's key (F major would be very different from d minor) and phrasing. Very technical stuff in music. It would take millenia to figure out ALL of them. And, judging by the vastness of the music culture now, we're nowhere near the end.

...and as for song samples used in rap, nobody "steals" anybody's songs. Samples have to be cleared by the record companies -- and in most cases, OK'd by the actual artist too.

BUT, now then I heard both I see that it's rather similar. It doesn't matter if the notes aren't exactly the same, it just has to be recognisable as another's work, the reason The Hooisers didn't get sued by ELO for Goodbye Mr A sounding STUPIDLY like Mr Blue Sky is that they had an agreement and ELO are mentioned in the album sleeve.

It'd be like someone writing 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in more modern language, taking some of the symbolism out, then claiming it was their's. It's still stealing.

Vanilla ice admitted stealing from under pressure and told the media that is was just a part of rapping and everyone does it

sampling in hip hop and rap is completely different than stealing a melody and a chord progression. a sample is taken out of context and used to form a separate beat, or at least it does when the artist samples well, which i think kanye does.