Posted on 08/16/2019 9:20:59 PM PDT by DoodleBob
According to NBC News, the Justice Department filed a friend of court brief late Thursday supporting LED ZEPPELIN in the "Stairway To Heaven" copyright lawsuit.
Last September, a federal appeals court decided unanimously to overturn a jury's decision that LED ZEPPELIN's 1971 classic was not a rip-off of SPIRIT's song.
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 untitled album, better known as "Led Zeppelin IV".
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 LED ZEPPELIN.
(Excerpt) Read more at blabbermouth.net ...
>>”Taurus” doesn’t even come close to the entire composition nor performance that is “Stairway”.
John Lennon only used a line from Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me in Come Together but it was enough to permit mobster Morris Levy to sue Lennon over the infraction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Catch_Me
The guy lays it out well.
Not guilty. No way.
I actually think the Stones were the best cover band of all time.
The punishment for plagiarism must be the gallows pole!
Best comment in this thread. You win!
The punishment for plagiarism must be the gallows pole!
Geez, I thought they were terrible. We walked out.
Super explanation.
Have you ever seen the youtube of 40 rock songs done with the same exact chord progression? (”Don’t Stop Believin’” was one).
I would have liked to have seen someone go up to Peter Grant back in the day and try to tell them that Zeppelin was ripping off other artists.
Zeppelin were certainly creative in their own right. As I said Achilles Last Stand is a masterpiece. They also inspired countless musicians and bands. Of course Jimmy Page gets Rock's Roman Polanski award, after 1970 or so there were not a very good live act, and so on. Net-net I like them, but I'd rather be honest with facts than be a bot-nobody looks good in brown lipstick.
Rock was stolen from old blues men anyway
George Harrison got sued for “My Sweet Lord” because they said it was a ripoff of The Chiffon’s “Hes So Fine.” Harrison said: “it’s the same chords but not the same song.”
Anyone can have a off night. I saw Aerosmith back during the Monsters of Rock days. They were awful. Just awful. Tyler was so drunk he fell over and face planted on stage. They played for about 4 songs before Jeff Beck saved the day and politely ushered them off stage.
He played the entire Blow by Blow album and then dig into his stuff all the way back to the Yardbirds. 2 hours later it was over. He was amazing. Just amazing.
This was at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ironically enough a large cooling unit caught fire when Aerosmith was playing. Fortunately the fire was quickly sniffed out and no one was injured. That could have broke real bad.
L
So the Stones copied, too, eh?
True. A lot of bands were playing cover music back then.
But did they all pretend to write the music? Plant and Page had their names listed as the writers.
Never heard that before, but it’s a great tune.
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