Did Radiohead copy this video from Russian rock group Mashina Vremeni?

Russian rock legend Andrei Makarevich, founder of Russian rock band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine), has accused English band Radiohead of imitating a clip made by his group 16 years ago.

“Radiohead’s video for Lift is a crude rip-off of our video for The Place Where There Is Light, which we filmed with Mashina in 2001,” Makarevich wrote on Facebook on 13 September, later adding a link to the earlier clip for reference.

Both music videos centre around band members taking a long journey in a lift, with various people joining them as it arrives at different floors.

Makarevich told RFE/RL that, while there were “more than obvious” similarities, he did not plan to take legal action and was uncertain as to whether the perceived parallels were tantamount to intellectual property theft.

What do you reckon — did Radiohead “lift” the idea for their new video from Mashina Vremeni?

Source: RFE/RL