LED ZEPPELIN Pressing Court To Undo Ruling In "Stairway To Heaven" Copyright Lawsuit
November 1, 2018, 5 years ago
Law360 is reporting that Led Zeppelin is pressing the full Ninth Circuit to undo a ruling last month that revived a copyright lawsuit over the intro to "Stairway To Heaven", saying the ruling will cause "widespread confusion" and upset the "delicate balance" between copyright protection and the public domain.
In a brief filed Friday, the band asked the court to reconsider a September decision by a three-judge panel, which wiped out a 2016 jury verdict that said that "Stairway" did not infringe a 1967 instrumental ballad called "Taurus" by the band Spirit.
That ruling, Zeppelin said, threatens to improperly extend protection to collections of public domain elements that shouldn't be covered by copyright law.
"At best, the decision will cause confusion and unpredictability throughout the circuit," Zeppelin wrote. "At worst, it will cause jurors to find infringement just because the same unprotected elements are present, upsetting the 'delicate balance' between protecting authors of original material and the freedom to use public domain elements."
Read more at Law360.
