Led Zeppelin Is Victorious In Copyright Trial

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have been fighting the case for a long time that said they stole those iconic sounds from the beginning of their hit song from the 60s band Spirit.

A USA jury will decide whether the opening section of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” – one of the most famous passages in rock music – was lifted from a lesser-known US band. This has been a complaint for several years from band member Randy Wolfe, but he never filed a suit.

This story will be updated.

The case is not the first time Led Zeppelin was accused of swiping another artist’s work.

Jurors rejected the defense that Page and Plant would not have been familiar with “Taurus”, finding in legal speak that they had “access” to it. He told the court Page was playing some music by a fire and he offered a couplet to go with it as a lyric.

“We are grateful for the jury’s conscientious service and pleased that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the origins of “Stairway to Heaven” and confirming what we have known for 45 years”, Page and Plant said in a joint statement.

“The reality is that we proved access, but (the jury) could never hear what (Page and Plant) had access to”, said trust attorney Francis Malofiy, who called the verdict sad and disappointing.

TheWrap, reporting from the courtroom, says “the jury found that, while Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant did have access to “Taurus” before writing ‘Stairway, ‘ the songs are not substantially similar”.

Under cross-examination, Plant acknowledged that Led Zeppelin played a cover medley that included a different Spirit song in the band’s early days, but he didn’t recall seeing Spirit in concert, or ever meeting the group.

Page, 72, and Plant, 67, who testified and were present throughout the closely watched trial, showed little immediate reaction to the verdict in court.

Page said his ambition was to write a song that would accelerate to a crescendo and he first shared the opening at Headley Grange in the spring of 1970 with Jones to get an ally in his scheme.

“Randy California deserves writing credit for “Stairway to Heaven” and to take his place as an author of Rock’s greatest song”, the complaint reads. Page and Plant both claimed that they had not heard Taurus until recently and not until after Page’s son-in-law had alerted Page to a growing internet buzz about similarities between the two songs.

Stairway to Heaven was written by Page and Plant and released in 1971 on Led Zeppelin’s fourth studio album.

A jury awarded Gaye’s family $7.4 million, but a judge later reduced the amount to $5.3 million.