WWW- ARE the Red Hot Chili Peppers really stone-cold copycats? The Peppers have just come out with a huge new album, “Stadium Arcadium,” but its success is marred by insiders’ charges that the CD’s hit single is uncomfortably similar to a Tom Petty hit from the ’90s.

“The single ‘Dani California’ [currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart] is a huge hit – but there is a major problem,” one source claimed. “The song has the same chord progression, melody and tempo of Petty’s ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance.’ The song even has a similar lyrical theme.”

“Dani California” starts off: “Gettin’ born in the state of Mississippi / Poppa was a copper and her momma was a hippie / In Alabama she was swinging hammer,” while “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” goes: “She grew up in a Indiana town / Had a good-lookin’ mama who never was around / But she grew up tall and she grew up right / With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night.”

Our source said, “Tom Petty was made aware of this and is looking into legal ramifications. The Chili Peppers could be facing a huge plagiarism lawsuit – which is a major problem for Warners. Both bands are on the Warner Bros. label. If Tom sues, the album, which is Warner’s biggest hit of the year, would have to be pulled from shelves pending litigation.”

Petty’s rep, Heidi Robinson, said: “I am well aware of this situation. [The two songs] certainly do sound similar, don’t they? I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Tom doesn’t have a comment on this at all. I have no idea if he is going to sue the Chili Peppers, and am not prepared to make a comment on that.”

Chili Peppers’ rep Liz Rosenberg referred calls to Warner Bros. spokesman Link Burland, who said, “This is the first I have heard of it.”

Meanwhile, Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis talked about the album to Rolling Stone and noted: “Love and women, pregnancies and marriages, relationship struggles – those are real and profound influences on this record.” Nowhere did he mention Tom Petty.