06-23-2016, 10:17 PM
(04-12-2016, 08:24 PM)Donovan Wrote: Led Zeppelin is going to trial with the estate of the dead singer of a band Zeppelin toured with in the sixties, because the opening riff of "Stairway to Heaven" sound remarkably similar to the older instrumental "Taurus". It will be interesting to see whether the trial holds up. They are undeniably similar. But the question is, can you copyright a riff? And the first thing I thought on reading the articles was,
"Wait! You mean Led Zeppelin borrowed heavily and sometimes stole from other less famous previous works? NO WAYYYYY!"
Led Zeppelin has settled a few cases over the decades to avoid going to court for allegedly jacking riffs.
But.....given the amount of airplay and sales/royalties still generated by Stairway to Heaven --and considering the impact on the band's legacy if they didn't fight allegations of stealing their signature tune -- they pretty much had to go to trial on this one, in my opinion.
![[Image: 576c1f312200002e00f82953.jpg?c5mraaohag]](http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/530_298/576c1f312200002e00f82953.jpg?c5mraaohag)
And, it's good that they did.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page have attended the court proceedings since the trial began on June 14th.
The Los Angeles jury, in their second day of deliberations today, found Led Zeppelin’s singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had access to Spirit’s 1967 song “Taurus” but that the riff they were accused of taking was not intrinsically similar to the opening chords of “Stairway.”
A huge legal victory for the band, which just goes to show...all that glitters is gold.