John Williams stole (borrowed) a lot of music from Gustav Holst and many others. He's famous for it. Specifically parts of Holst's The Planets. Does this sound familiar?: https://youtu.be/Isic2Z2e2xs?t=4m24s
Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, Mendelssohn, Brahms etc. all did this. Put in this context what Williams has done in borrowing from Holst and others isn't scandalous whatsoever and shouldn't be thought of as such.
> There's a long history - I suppose it's a tradition - of composers claiming copyright on someone else's work and sending DMCA takedowns automatically
That's how absurd it has become.
I always joke about how much money Europe should pay China for ideas like the compass or gunpowder.
Or listen to any of Ralph Vaughan Williams' 9 symphonies and you'll hear John Williams' orchestration and voicing directly.