It was really petty for the Rolling Stones to take songwriting credit and 100% of the royalties from The Verve just because they borrowed a bass line or a melody or whatever it was about the song deemed to be similar to "The Last Time".
These plagiarism suits are getting out of hand. There are only so many notes on the musical scale and eventually you are going to have to repeat some of them to come up with new material. "Bittersweet Symphony" is a totally different song. Just like George Harrison's "Sweet Lord" was totally different than The Chiffons "He's So Fine" yet the ex-Beatle lost that lawsuit as well.
Wow, I had no idea about the copyright thing. Talk about an injustice.
http://recycledbeatz.tumblr.com/post/4783151146/landmark-case-rolling-stones-v-the-verve
It is worth noting that it was not the Stones but one of their previous managers who pursued the case.