A federal court found Thursday 70s band Led Zeppelin did not steal the opening chord progressions of their legendary anthem “Stairway to Heaven.”
The estate of Randy Wolfe, guitarist in the psychedelic rock band Spirit, brought a copyright infringement claim against Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, alleging they stole chords from Spirit’s song “Taurus” while touring together in 1967 and 1968. Wolfe’s estate sought monetary damages and a writer’s credit. (RELATED: Jury To Decide If Led Zeppelin Stole Intro To ‘Stairway to Heaven’)
“For Led Zeppelin, they won on a technicality – they should be proud of that,” plaintiff’s attorney Francis Malofiy told Rolling Stone. “For Plaintiff, the jury’s verdict is disappointing, but largely determined by one ruling of the court: Plaintiff was not permitted to play the album recording of Taurus, which Jimmy Page had in his record collection. This ruling, which limited Plaintiff to using the sheet music deposited in the Copyright Office, effectively tied our hands behind our back. Needless to say, we do not believe it is legally correct or logically sound.”
Defense lawyers argued the chords were in wide use in music, such that no person could stake an ownership claim of them. They pointed to the testimony of New York University music professor Dr. Lawrence Ferrara, who testified that the “descending chromatic minor line progression” common to both songs had been in wide circulation for over 300 years.
Jurors rejected the defense that Plant and Page had no access to the Spirit song, but still found the chords in question were not “intrinsically similar.”
Page and Plant thanked the jury for “confirming what we have known for 45 years.”
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