The legendary English rock band Led Zeppelin won a high-profile copyright infringement case on Thursday, after a California federal jury rejected claims that the opening to their famed megahit “Stairway to Heaven” was stolen from a song by the band Spirit.
The jury found that there was a reasonable chance that Jimmy Page or Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin had heard the song “Taurus” by Spirit, before they wrote “Stairway to Heaven” and could have copied it, but decided that the two songs were not “extrinsically similar.” The jury was instructed that while the two songs might share similarities like chord progression, common musical elements such as chord progressions are ineligible for copyright protection.
Attorneys for the Plaintiff contended that evidence showed that the similarities between the two songs went beyond simple chord progression, and that Randy Wolfe of Spirit, deserved writing credit on the megahit and some of the millions of dollars the song had earned in the previous years.
The jury disagreed, finding that the original parts of “Taurus” were not similar to “Stairway to Heaven” and awarded the Plaintiff no amount of damages. Attorneys for the Plaintiff indicated that an appeal may be forthcoming.