Music Legal: Justice Department Sides With Led Zeppelin in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Legal Battle

[playahaitian]

Justice Department Sides With Led Zeppelin in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Legal Battle

Trump administration finds judge ruled correctly in terms of application of pre-1972 copyright law

By
DANIEL KREPS

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The Trump administration weighed in on the legal battle over "Stairway to Heaven," siding with Led Zeppelin in their copyright dispute.

Crollalanza/Shutterstock

The Trump administration weighed in on the legal battle over “Stairway to Heaven” this week, with the Department of Justice siding with Led Zeppelin in their copyright dispute with the estate of late Spirit guitarist Randy (California) Wolfe.

Although an appeal of the lawsuit against Led Zeppelin is still ongoing, the Justice Department filed an amicus this week in support of previous judge’s ruling that stated that the copyrights of musical compositions prior to 1972 were only protected as sheet music; in 1972, Congress changed the law to protect sound recordings, NBC News reports.





“Taurus,” the Spirit song that Led Zeppelin allegedly infringed on for “Stairway to Heaven,” was written in 1967, making it applicable to the previous federal law.



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The Justice Department added that despite the similarities between the two tracks, under the previous federal law, the contested passages must be nearly identical; since they are not, the Justice Department argued Led Zeppelin rightly prevailed in the previous trial under the pre-1972 copyright law.

“There should be no serious dispute that the passages of Stairway to Heaven and Taurus that are at issue here are not virtually identical. At a minimum, the notes and rhythm are not all, or even mostly, the same,” the government wrote in the amicus.

Despite the Department of Justice’s stance, in response to an appeal by the Wolfe estate, the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals still ordered a new trial Friday, continuing the five-year legal battle. The appeals court found that the previous judge erred during jury instructions as well as refusing to allow the Wolfe estate’s legal team to play “Taurus” during Jimmy Plant’s testimony, Variety reports.

“Without a selection and arrangement instruction, the jury instructions severely undermined [the Wolfe trustee’s] argument for extrinsic similarity, which is exactly what the jury found lacking,” Circuit Judge Richard A. Paez wrote in his appeals decision Friday. The case will go before an appeals court in September.

 

[mangobob79]

now look at that shit & the katie perry shit ! atleast with this song u can clearly hear similarities but with katy perry joint! it so subjective its unbelievably stupendous

 

[Jboogiee]

And on top of that Led Zeppelin stole a lot of shit especially from Blues Artists.

 

[Ill Paragraph]

This is a tricky issue. I just watched a video of Nile Rodgers being interviewed on Sway’s show and he had an interesting take on this. He talked about the differences between inspiration, interpolation and imitation (you remember that the Sugarhill Gang had to pay him for borrowing Good Times without permission). He argued that inspiration isn’t necessarily theft but that if it was clear that elements of a song were being borrowed, then the borrower needs to pay.

Not sure if I’m accurately representing his argument but it was a good discussion.

 

[black again]

Zep outright stole Stairway...the end.

 

[shaddyvillethug]

Didn’t robin thick steal marvin Gaye shit

 

[Ming Fei Hong]

Zep outright stole Stairway...the end.

Zep outright stole [insert Black person's music here]...the end.

 

[dbluesun]

i never heard of this but Zeppelin should pay
they stole it

 

[donwuan]

They got a new trial by jury so this shit ain't over.

 

[TEN]

dyam teif dem

 

[dawilleyone]

I watched a youtube video about this recently and the argument being made was that the chord progression was very common throughout music history. No one should be able to claim it as their own unless they stole it note for note


Go to about 3:40

 

[mangobob79]

I watched a youtube video about this recently and the argument being made was that the chord progression was very common throughout music history. No one should be able to claim it as their own unless they stole it note for note


Go to about 3:40

but its more than chords, i know u cant copyright chord progression but , even tho u can overlook the fact that the chords r same , but also pretty much the MOTIF" is same, the underlying harmonic & melodic & even rhythmic theme r pretty much same too

 

[Lexx Diamond]

Thieving devils.

 

[Jboogiee]

Led Zeppelin’s 10 Boldest Rip-Offs
Whether or not Jimmy Page and Robert Plant stole “Stairway to Heaven,” their catalog is full of blatant musical swipes


1. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”

This song, more than any other track on Led Zeppelin’s debut album, established their epic sweep. It was written by American folk singer Anne Bredon in the 1950s: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, however, were fans of Joan Baez and knew the track from her 1962 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1. (Page has said that he learned the song “in the days of sitting in the darkness, playing my six-string behind Marianne Faithfull.”) Led Zeppelin credited the song as traditional (and gave arrangement credit to Page); in fairness to them, Baez’s album also mistakenly listed the song as traditional. Bredon was apparently unaware that Led Zeppelin had covered her song: When she found out in the Eighties, she agreed to split the royalties with the band, and is now listed as co-author.

2. “Dazed and Confused”

Page also did this song with the Yardbirds, but the origin is actually singer-songwriter Jake Holmes, who included it on his 1967 album “The Above Ground Sound” of Jake Holmes. Page has claimed to be unaware of Holmes’ song, but the title and much of the music are unmistakably the same (Page rewrote most of the lyrics). Page apparently heard the song when Holmes opened for the Yardbirds at a Greenwich Village gig. For decades, Holmes declined to sue for authorship; as he put it, “I said, ‘What the hell, let him have it.'” In 2010, however, Holmes finally filed suit; the case was settled out of court and the 2012 Zeppelin live album Celebration Day credits the song as written by “Page; inspired by Jake Holmes.”

3. “Whole Lotta Love”

When it came time for Plant to lay down vocals over Page’s guitar riff – one of the first times he ever contributed lyrics to a Zeppelin track–he quoted from “You Need Love,” a song written by Willie Dixon and sung by Muddy Waters in 1962. (Dixon sued in 1985, settled out of court, and is now listed as co-writer.) As Plant later described it, “I just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to sing?’ That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that … Well, you only get caught when you’re successful. That’s the game.” It’s worth noting, however, that only seven years separate “You Need Love” and “Whole Lotta Love.”





4. “The Lemon Song”

While the famous lemon-squeezing lyric dates back to Robert Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside Blues” (also covered by Zeppelin), this song owes more to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor,” which the band had been playing live. A lawsuit soon ensued; as a result, on some pressings of Led Zeppelin II, the track is actually listed as “Killing Floor.” Ultimately, it reverted to the citrus title, and the band now credits Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf’s real name) as co-author.

5. “Bring It on Home”

The closing track on Led Zeppelin II is a Page/Plant composition bookended by quiet bluesy sections. Those bookends, fairly blatantly, are a cover of “Bring It on Home,” the Sonny Boy Williamson blues song written by Zep favorite Willie Dixon. Page complained, “The thing with ‘Bring It on Home,’ Christ, there’s only a tiny bit taken from Sonny Boy Williamson’s version and we threw that in as a tribute to him. People say, ‘Oh, “Bring It on Home” is stolen.’ Well, there’s only a little bit in the song that relates to anything that had gone before it.” However, those bookends are more than a “little bit” of the track: they form half its running time. On the live album How the West Was Won, released in 2003, the band designated their middle composition as “Bring It on Back” and gave appropriate credit to Dixon.

6. “Since I’ve Been Loving You”

Another track with uncredited elements on loan from another song: In this case, some of the lyrics came from “Never,” released just two years earlier by one of Plant’s favorite bands, Moby Grape: “Working from 11 to 7 every night/Ought to make life a drag” became “Working from 7 to 11 every night/It really makes life a drag.”

7. “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”

Jimmy Page often cited Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch as an influence. So much so that two Zeppelin tracks bear strong similarities to recordings Jansch made: “Black Mountain Side” borrows heavily from “Down by Blackwaterside,” while “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” is clearly a reworking of Jansch’s “The Waggoner’s Lad.” Jansch never sued: Although Page gave himself writing credits, the original material is based on folk melodies. But one of Jansch’s bandmates in Pentangle, Jacqui McShee complained, “It’s a very rude thing to do. Pinch somebody else’s thing and credit it to yourself.”





8. “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper”


The last track on Led Zeppelin III, named in tribute to the band’s chum Roy Harper, throws together bits and pieces of various blues songs, most prominently Bukka White’s “Shake ‘Em on Down,” released in 1937. The band listed the author as “Traditional” and the arrangement as being by “Charles Obscure” (a pseudonym for Page).

9. “In My Time of Dying”



This 11-minute Physical Graffiti track is credited to Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, but it’s clearly the traditional gospel song that was recorded by many other people, starting with Blind Willie Johnson in 1927 (his version was called “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed”) and including Bob Dylan in 1962 (he called it “In My Time of Dyin'” and made no claim on authorship). No lawsuit resulted: The song is in the public domain.

10. “Boogie With Stu”

This excellent cover of Ritchie Valens’ song “Ooh My Head” was originally intended for Zeppelin’s fourth album with a title of “Sloppy Drunk.” Eventually released on Physical Graffiti, the song was credited to the four members of Led Zeppelin, plus titular pianist Ian Stewart, and “Mrs. Valens,” in an effort to get some royalties directly to the mother of the original singer, who had died in a 1959 plane crash. “Robert did lean on that lyric a bit,” Page conceded. “So what happens? They try to sue us for all the song!” he said indignantly, as if the band hadn’t borrowed the song’s melody wholesale. “We could not believe it.”

Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant took the stand to deny lifting Spirit’s “Taurus” for “Stairway to Heaven” in court.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-10-boldest-rip-offs-223419/