Led Zeppelin cleared in Stairway to Heaven copyright lawsuit

Spirit, which gained some popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s for its novel fusion of rock with jazz and other styles of music, put out a song on its debut album in 1968 that some feel was the genesis for Stairway To Heaven.

A Los Angeles jury has decided the band Led Zeppelin did not steal the opening to its classic anthem “Stairway to Heaven”.

The jury has returned with a defense verdict, finding no substantial similarity between the song Stairway to Heaven and the instrumental song Taurus by the Los Angeles-based rock band Spirit. Do the two compositions sound similar? Lawyers for the estate of California have said that they will appeal.

Because recordings prior to 1978 aren’t protected by copyright, they had to rely on expert renditions of the sheet music filed with the U.S. Copyright Office.

It was the culmination of a seven-day trial in the case brought by Michael Skidmore, the trustee and friend of Spirit guitarist Randy California, who long maintained he deserved credit for Stairway but drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.

Page, Plant and bassist John Paul Jones all testified in the case, providing anecdotes about the 1971 creation of “Stairway to Heaven”. In several hours of charming and cheeky testimony, they described the craft behind one of the best-known songs in rock “n” roll, all the while denying knowledge of one of the genre’s least-known tunes or the artists who performed it.

Malofiy said he didn’t need camera footage of Page and Plant transcribing “Taurus” to show they stole the work.

The performances by both men were memorable, but they may not have been fully believable.

Jurors found the trust had cleared a few hurdles, including that Page and Plant had “access” to “Taurus”, meaning they would have been familiar with it.

The estate’s attorney, Francis Malofiy, reportedly said that he was sad and disappointed by the jury’s decision.

During the trial, reports said that Led Zeppelin’s lawyers argued that the chord progression in question had been in use for more than 300 years.