{"id":490479,"date":"2019-09-24T16:04:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T22:04:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=889336"},"modified":"2019-09-24T16:04:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T22:04:32","slug":"all-you-need-to-know-about-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/all-you-need-to-know-about-led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-case\/","title":{"rendered":"All You Need to Know About Led Zeppelin\u2019s \u2018Stairway to Heaven\u2019 Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like \u201cStairway to Heaven<\/a>\u201d itself, the copyright<\/a> lawsuit against the iconic Led Zeppelin<\/a> song is winding, dramatic and complex. While the first case seemingly wrapped in 2016, with a judge ruling in favor of Led Zeppelin, earlier this year a three-judge panel invalidated the ruling due to process errors and poor jury instructions. That ruling set up a hearing Monday in San Francisco, where an 11-judge panel for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments from both sides of Michael S<\/em>kidmore <\/em>v. Led Zeppelin<\/em>, upon which it will eventually make its ruling.<\/p>\n

In the initial case that began in 2014, Michael Skidmore \u2014 a trustee representing the estate of Randy Wolfe, the guitarist of California band Spirit \u2014 accused Led Zeppelin\u2019s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of stealing the opening guitar riff of \u201cStairway\u201d from Spirit\u2019s 1968 instrumental track \u201cTaurus.\u201d In 2016, a court found Led Zeppelin not guilty of copyright infringement on the song. But in September 2018, a Ninth Circuit three-judge panel ruled unanimously that the original trial involved \u201cerroneous jury instructions\u201d \u2014 for instance, the district judge incorrectly told the jury that short musical sequences could never be copyrighted \u2014 and ordered a new trial.<\/p>\n

On Monday, both sides made arguments to the appeals court, although much of the hearing was dominated by the lawyer for the Wolfe estate, Francis Malofiy. Per the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/a>, the crux of Malofiy\u2019s testimony centered around his argument that the recorded versions of \u201cStairway to Heaven\u201d and \u201cTaurus\u201d should be included as evidence and played at trial. During the initial trial, jurors had to base their decision on the sheet music for both songs (and excerpts played live in the courtroom by a guitarist) because both tracks were copyrighted under a 1909 law that only protects the sheet music dropped off at the U.S. Copyright Office. But more recent copyright legislation extends to the sound recording, while contemporary music copyright cases have hinged on recordings as well, most famously the 2015 one<\/a> involving Robin Thicke\u2019s \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d and Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u201cGot to Give It Up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malofiy also argued that the decision to exclude the actual recordings in favor of the sheet music was misleading, in part because Jimmy Page doesn\u2019t read music. \u201cWhy are we looking at this artificial analysis that never happened in the real world?\u201d he said, per The Associated Press<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s wrong, it\u2019s artificial, it\u2019s imaginary. What we do know, and what we proved at trial, is that Jimmy Page has five of Spirit\u2019s albums in his record collection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the judges on the panel, however, were skeptical of Malofiy\u2019s argument. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get your sound recording in to win, don\u2019t you?\u201d Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz said. \u201cYou lose the case unless you do. A hundred times out of a hundred.\u201d When Judge Hurwitz asked Malofiy, \u201cWhat work in your view is entitled to copyright protection?\u201d the attorney replied, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the sound recording that\u2019s copyrighted, I think it\u2019s the composition embodied in the sound recording.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney for Led Zeppelin, Peter Anderson, brushed aside Malofiy\u2019s argument about the recording as irrelevant. Instead, he argued there was no proof Zeppelin copied Spirit and that any common elements in \u201cTaurus\u201d that might have also appeared in \u201cStairway\u201d were not protected by copyright law. He also returned the focus to the sheet music, saying, \u201cAt no point in this case did the plaintiff ever take the position that the deposit copy was in error.\u201d<\/p>\n

Led Zeppelin also received some support from a representative of the U.S. Department of Justice, which had filed an amicus brief last month in support of the previous judge\u2019s ruling that copyrights of musical compositions prior to 1972 are only protected as sheet music. Daniel Tenny, an attorney for the government, said, \u201cIt\u2019s clear that copyright owners were told \u2026 that all you\u2019re getting protection for is what you deposited with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the Zeppelin-Spirit case is now being reviewed by an appeals court, it\u2019s garnered a lot more attention than it did the first time around \u2014 especially because several high-profile copyright battles have been waged in the music space in the time since, and because the appeals court\u2019s ruling will likely resonate beyond the music industry<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issues have now been defined a little more sharply,\u201d Wesley Lewis, an attorney at corporate law firm Haynes and Boone who specializes in copyright cases, tells Rolling Stone. <\/em>The Ninth Court will not just decide whether Led Zeppelin stole the riff: It is also poised to give a new framework on the contentious debate over how, when, and why music can be protected under existing copyright law.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a chance that it could be kicked all the way up the U.S. Supreme Court, which would mark the first time the country\u2019s highest court has ever grappled with the scope of copyright as it applies to music.<\/p>\n

Malofiy told Rolling Stone<\/em> last week that<\/a> he believes the Department of Justice is \u201cmaking a laughable argument\u201d and music industry figures supporting Led Zeppelin are \u201ctrying to say that any current artist can steal anything anything from the past and change it ever so slightly, and now they can\u2019t be sued.\u201d (The Department of Justice could not be immediately reached for comment.)<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like \u201cStairway to Heaven\u201d itself, the copyright lawsuit against the iconic Led Zeppelin song is winding, dramatic and complex. While the first case seemingly wrapped in 2016, with a judge ruling in favor of Led Zeppelin, earlier this year a three-judge panel invalidated the ruling due to process errors and poor jury instructions. That ruling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-21 14:25:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}