'Stairway to Heaven' copyright saga faces review in appeals court

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, left, and singer Robert Plant. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, left, and singer Robert Plant. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Published Jun 12, 2019

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New York  - Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" copyright

battle will get a rare encore in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

after the court muted an earlier ruling calling for a new trial.

In the surprise decision Monday, the venerable court vacated a

September ruling from one of its three-judge panels and said the

high-profile case will now go before 11 of its judges to determine

what should happen next.

The case centers on claims Zeppelin's 1971 megahit "Stairway to

Heaven" stole elements from the 1966 song "Taurus" by late Los

Angeles guitar prodigy Randy Wolfe.

Both sides had asked for the larger, so-called "en banc" review of

different aspects of the complex September ruling from the

three-judge panel.

Led Zeppelin's lawyers requested it by saying the 2016 verdict that

found no wrongdoing or infringement on the part of the British band

should stand.

Lawyers for Wolfe's estate, meanwhile, said the September ruling

erred in its finding that the "deposit copy" sheet music for

"Taurus," as opposed to sound recordings of the song from Wolfe's

band Spirit, represented the scope of what could be protected by

copyright.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel said the "district court

correctly ruled that sound recordings of 'Taurus' as performed by

Spirit could not be used to prove substantial similarity." But in

somewhat of a split decision, it said the judge was wrong to block

recordings of "Taurus" for the purpose of demonstrating Led Zeppelin

had "access" to the song.

Francis Malofiy and AJ Fluehr, the lawyers for Wolfe's estate, said

Monday they were "gratified" by the 9th Circuit's decision, saying it

proved "an en banc rehearing of the deposit copy issue is

appropriate."

"The issue has national implications for artist rights and the prior

ruling was incorrect," they said in a statement to the New York Daily

News. "This is a big step for the creatives against the industry."

They claimed the re-hearing will be limited to their petition, but

the court's ruling was not specific in that regard, instead stating

that the review related to "these cases" and that the three-judge

ruling from September "shall not be cited as precedent by or to any

court of the 9th Circuit."

Lawyers for Led Zeppelin did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

Michael Skidmore, the trustee of Wolfe's estate, filed the underlying

lawsuit in 2014, more than a decade after Wolfe died in a tragic 1997

drowning accident while saving his son from a riptide in Hawaii.

Plant and Page both testified at the six-day trial in 2016 and were

adamant they didn't steal their opening guitar riff from Wolfe's

song.

"We are grateful for the jury's conscientious service and pleased

that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the

origins of 'Stairway to Heaven' and confirming what we have known for

45 years," Page and Plant said in a joint statement after the

verdict.

"We appreciate our fans' support, and look forward to putting this

legal matter behind us," they said.

Speaking after the verdict, Wolfe's sisters blasted the trial judge

for the decision that blocked jurors from listening to an actual

recording of Wolfe playing his composition on his guitar.

Jurors were asked to compare only in-court performances from

musicians hired on both sides of the case, with the plaintiff's

guitar version predictably sounding more similar to "Stairway" than

the defense rendition played on a piano.

"The jury didn't get to compare apples to apples because they never

got to hear Taurus. There's no way they could make a ruling in our

favor with what they had to listen to," sister Marla Randall

previously told the Daily News.

Plant, 70, and Page, 75, both testified at the trial and described

for jurors their recollection of how they wrote their epic

eight-minute song.

Plant said the song was composed in a dilapidated manor in rural

Hampshire, England, during brainstorming sessions with Page on

guitar.

He recalled sitting with Page by a fire and "ruminating" about music

as they toyed with "lots of pieces randomly" and "developed new

stuff."

Wolfe, meanwhile, was a guitar prodigy who worked with Jimi Hendrix

and was nicknamed Randy California by the Rock and Roll Hall of

Famer.

Wolfe's sisters said their brother considered suing before his death

but didn't have the money to pursue a claim and heard from an

attorney that the statute of limitations had passed.

"All we and our brother Randy ever wanted was acknowledgement that he

was the true author of the intro to 'Stairway to Heaven,'" sister

Janet Wolfe said after the verdict.

Led Zeppelin's victory in 2016 came after a different Los Angeles

jury decided Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed on Marvin

Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" with their hit song "Blurred Lines."

Gaye's family was awarded 7.4 million dollars, a figure that a judge

later reduced to 5.3 million dollars.

dpa

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