Led Zeppelin Cleared Once Again In Copyright Lawsuit Over “Stairway To Heaven”


According to NBC News and Blabbermouth.net, the Justice Department filed a friend of court brief late Thursday supporting Led Zeppelin’s in the “Stairway To Heaven” copyright lawsuit. Last September, a federal appeals court decided unanimously to overturn a jury’s decision that ‘Stairway’ classic was not a rip-off of Spirit’s song ‘Taurus’. Michael Skidmore, the trustee of ‘Taurus’ songwriter Randy “California” Wolfe’s estate, had brought the claims more than four decades after ‘Stairway To Heaven’ appeared on Led Zeppelin’s s untitled album, better known as Led Zeppelin IV or Zoso. In its brief filed Thursday, the Justice Department said the trial judge got it right when he ruled that the only work subject to copyright protection was the sheet music because the song was written before Congress changed the law in 1972, which gave protection to sound recordings. In June 2016, a Los Angeles jury deliberated for about five hours before deciding unanimously in favor of Zeppelin.Continue reading