Stairway To Litigation

[Dave James]

An appellate court has overturned an earlier finding that "Stairway To Heaven" was not plagiarized from the Spirit song "Taurus".  All parties will be heading back to court shortly re-examine the copyright infringement claim.  Frankly, I was surprised at the first outcome.  There are just too many similarities between the two songs and when you consider this with the fact that Zep had been touring with Spirit when the song was included in the latter's repertoire, it struck me as an open and shut case. Not to mention that Zep has something of a reputation for "borrowing" other people's songs and claiming them as their own.  As you might imagine, many millions in royalties are at stake.

 

[Brad]

There is already a thread on this, 

 

[Dave James]

Interesting take on this from YouTube contributor Rick Beato.