Led Zeppelin wins copyright suit for Stairway to Heaven

Led Zeppelin on Monday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to reinstate a jury verdict that it did not steal the opening guitar riff for Stairway to Heaven from an obscure song written four years earlier. In a 9-2 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said lead singer Robert Plant’s and guitarist Jimmy Page’s 1971 rock anthem did not infringe Taurus, written by guitarist Randy Wolfe of the band Spirit. “The trial and appeal process has been a long climb up the Stairway to Heaven,’” Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown wrote for the majority. Wolfe, who performed as Randy California, drowned in 1997, but a trustee for his estate sought damages potentially reaching millions of dollars.

RELATED POST

COMMENTS