Report: LED ZEPPELIN’s “Stairway To Heaven” Case Could Mean Millions For The Band
June 8, 2016, 8 years ago
The estate of an obscure rock musician, Randy California, who played in a rather obscure rock band, Spirit, is suing Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement, alleging that the first few bars of the rock anthem “Stairway To Heaven” – released in 1971 – were cribbed from, an obscure Spirit song. The two sides have been unable to settle and the case is headed to federal court in Los Angeles.
According to Yahoo! Finance, Alan Light, a former writer and editor at Rolling Stone and Vibe, and the author of books on Prince, Greg Allman and Tupac Shakur, says that while the chord progression of the two songs is similar, it just isn’t enough to merit infringement.
“The precedent is you can’t copyright a rhythm or Bo Diddly would have been the richest man alive,” says Light. “And you can’t copyright a chord sequence or all the jazz players who were just playing variations on “I’ve Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin… would all be illegal.”
Therefore Light says, infringement hasn’t occurred. “I don’t think a similar descending chord pattern is enough for that to be a ripoff that needs to be made good," says Light.
Read the full story and check out a video at Yahoo! Finance.
