Musicians

Cattledog

(6,361 posts) Sat Sep 29, 2018, 04:21 AM Sep 2018

New trial ordered in 'Stairway to Heaven' copyright lawsuit.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Friday ordered a new trial in a lawsuit accusing Led Zeppelin of copying an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic 1971 rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven.”

A federal court jury in Los Angeles two years ago found Led Zeppelin did not steal the famous riff from the song “Taurus” by the band Spirit.

But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled unanimously that the lower court judge provided erroneous jury instructions that misled jurors about copyright law central to the suit. It sent the case back to the court for another trial.

A phone message left with an attorney for Led Zeppelin, Peter Anderson, was not immediately returned.

https://apnews.com/4152b88d19c24dceb953aeac7adebc14/New-trial-ordered-in-'Stairway-to-Heaven'-copyright-lawsuit?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=APWestRegion

2 replies

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New trial ordered in 'Stairway to Heaven' copyright lawsuit. (Original Post) Cattledog Sep 2018 OP

Taurus by Spirit is on YouTube, I dont think it's even close. CaptainTruth Sep 2018 #1

I'm With You, Captain ProfessorGAC Oct 2018 #2

CaptainTruth

(7,265 posts)

1. Taurus by Spirit is on YouTube, I dont think it's even close.

Reply to Cattledog (Original post)

Sat Sep 29, 2018, 10:11 AM

Sep 2018

I've been playing guitar 40+ years, one of my past bands did a Zeppelin tribute set for a few years, I played Stairway to Heaven. Taurus isn't even close, especially not in the sense of copyright infringement.

ProfessorGAC

(70,406 posts)

2. I'm With You, Captain

Reply to CaptainTruth (Reply #1)

Mon Oct 1, 2018, 02:34 PM

Oct 2018

It's like calling anything with 12 bars and I, IV, V changes an infringement. These are fairly standard inner voice movements over fairly routine chord changes.

IMO, nothing to see here. And, i have doubts that Randy would have supported this suit.

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