It's pretty pathetic that a lot of people simply don't get that conventional western music style creates unconsciously followed (or consciously followed, if you study some music theory before writing music) rules that lead to similarities like this. That guy's description is pretty darn spot on.

and this is what happens when these prodigious genious musicians (woo hoo!) use the same 4/4, the same tempo, the same rhythm, the same scale (and the same instruments) over and over again believing something's being expressed with it.

Well lets look at it this way. The band you mentioned, I have never heard of, and this is the first time I have heard them.
Joe S on the other hand is well known, gets radio play and is one of the most recognized guitarists in the industry.
Cold Play is even more well know. While Cold Play may not have done it intentionally and more sub conscience, The fact is both music attorneys and musicologists agree it is a rip off and believe Joe will win in this case.
Look at Surfin US by the Beach Boys. It was taken from Chuck Berry's Sweet Little Sixteen. Chuck sued and won, and now has writing credit and royalies for the Beach Boys song.

Lets look at what Satriani claims that Coldplay has plagiarized.

The chords: The chords are mostly the same, but the last chord is different. The chord progression is also a very logical and common one and I think you can find many songs with similar chords.

The melody: The melody follows the well established musical principle of guide tones which is a logical melody to apply to the chords. The only similaritys are in the first short phrase, the rest can be atributed to guide tones. Furthermore, Satrianis phrasing is very different and ends up sounding very different. The first song that came to my mind when I heard Viva La Vida was this song which is much better match than Satriani's:



As for Chuck Berry vs. Beach Boys, the whole song was almost exactly the same in terms of melody and chords. Satriani's claim is based on only one phrase of a melody and some random chords...

I like it.