Led Zeppelin Ordered to go Back on Trial in 'Stairway to Heaven' Copyright Lawsuit

[Neffco]

Zeppelin sounds exactly like GVF, and the guys from GVF haven’t said a word about it.

 

[Tone deaf]

Over the course of human history, there have been something like 107 billion humans, who have at one time or another, inhabited the earth. The last roughly 7 billion are still here.

No matter how unique you think your idea is, someone somewhere has already had it, if not many of other someones. The "Caterpillar" belt track was actually invented by a guy named Lombard, years before Caterpillar patented his invention.

It is not likely that Spirit was the first to play that chord progression.

If I was LZ's atty, I'd call this guy as a witness:

Rick Beato just posted this video comparison.

 

[Roberteaux]

♫ Oooooh, and it makes me wonder... ♫

--R

 

[Bobby Mahogany]

If memory serves, I believe Steve Marriott died in a house fire.

If you believe that then Bon Scott died in a car!



Oh, wait...

 

[Bobby Mahogany]

There should be more female nudity and less Led Zeppelin lawsuits.
There.
I said it.

 

[Midnight Blues]

Similar, but not the same.

There are certainly more obvious examples in the catalog however.

 

[Tone deaf]

I remember when the term "Sampling" was coined...

 

[Filipem]

 

[mudface]

Even when Jimmy Page formed The Firm he got sued by a group of lawyers who had a band by the same name,... I guess all that black magic crap he learned doesn't affect lawyers,... unless they're teenage girls.

 

[Bill Hicklin]

Teenage Girl Lawyers would be a hell of a band name.

 

[Sconnie]

Those lawyers better get busy!

 

[JohnnyN]

Have you ever heard this blatant Zeppelin rip off of Steve Mariott's vocal style (who was considered to sing for Led Zeppelin to begin with)?

Steve was a fantastic musician and singer.
So was the performer of the 1963 record that inspired him and Robert

 

[mgenet]

Teenage Girl Lawyers would be a hell of a band name.

Could scare the hell out of Jimmie P...

 

[Latearrival]

Guilty!

Look here at 51:20!

 

[mtgguitar]

‘Stairway to Heaven’ judges asked to give writers a break

By Edvard Pettersson, BLOOMBERG NEWS

A flood of lawsuits is threatening to upend that concept, making trivial similarities in songs the basis for a case of infringement – the unlawful reproduction of copyrighted work. That likeness in chords or melody in a top 10 song can glitter like gold to an artist whose work hasn’t reached that popularity.

So, classic rockers Led Zeppelin are being joined by a coalition of songwriters, music professors, record companies and even the federal government in an attempt to curtail the practice.

They’re set to go before 11 judges of the federal appeals court in San Francisco

today and urge them to overturn a ruling of a panel that ordered a retrial in an infringement lawsuit over Led Zeppelin’s iconic “Stairway to Heaven” – and lead guitarist Jimmy Page’s melodic opening.

A jury had found Led Zeppelin didn’t infringe the 1968 instrumental track of “Taurus,” by the California band Spirit. But in a ruling almost a year ago, the three-judge appeals panel said a new trial was needed because the jury wasn’t properly instructed that a combination of common elements in a composition can amount to infringement.

The unusual decision to hold a so-called en banc hearing by the 11 judges was prompted by an outcry from the music industry that followed the September 2018 ruling. “The panel has drastically expanded the basis for finding copyright infringement in music cases,” a group of 123 songwriters, composers, musicians and producers said. “The end result of this ruling is that trivial and commonplace similarities between two songs may be considered to constitute the basis for a finding of infringement.”

A slew of copyright lawsuits already claim protection for elements of a song where there shouldn’t be any, said Bill Hochberg, an attorney with Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who specializes in music law.

A case in point is a trial Katy Perry lost this year, Hochberg said. A simple sequence of six notes in her 2013 hit “Dark Horse” was found to have infringed a Christian rapper’s track.

The holders of rights to Marvin Gaye’s 1973 song “Let’s Get It On” sued Ed Sheeran for more than $100 million, claiming he ripped off the melody, rhythms and harmonies among other things. The lawsuit in Manhattan federal court has been put on hold until the Led Zeppelin lawsuit is resolved.

 

[SteveC]

I need to copyright the chromatic scale and then sue everyone for using any of the notes. It's mine, fuckers.

Artistic butthurt is out of control.

 

[gadafi]

Men at Work got screwed over by some POS who bought the rights to a nursery rhyme which bore a resemblance to a very small part of Land Down Under. They won after several years in the courts but it cost them a fortune in legals and Greg Ham ended up topping himself. Filth, just gold digging filth.

 

[Kamen_Kaiju]

I need to copyright the chromatic scale and then sue everyone for using any of the notes. It's mine, fuckers.

Way to kill Slayer and Death-Metal you fuker!

 

[Olds442]

so this is in San Francisco?

 

[Bigfoot410]

Jimmy did it better.....F-OFF!!