Update: LED ZEPPELIN Ask Judge To Decide “Stairway To Heaven” Case
June 20, 2016, 8 years ago
Courthouse News Service reports that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on Monday (June 20th) asked a judge rather than a jury to decide the copyright trial over "Stairway To Heaven," arguing their accuser hasn't proven multiple elements of his case.
In a motion for judgment as a matter of law, Led Zeppelin members Page and Plant say that during the four days of trial so far, former rock journalist Michael Skidmore, who sued the music duo in 2014, failed to establish ownership of "Taurus”, the 1967 Spirit song at the center of the copyright infringement lawsuit. Instead, the ownership of "Taurus" belongs to Lou Adler's Hollenbeck Music, the pair say.
They say the witnesses who took the stand before Skidmore rested his case on Friday did not demonstrate to the jury that Led Zeppelin had heard "Taurus" before they created "Stairway To Heaven" in the early 1970s, and Skidmore's two music experts failed to present "admissible evidence of striking or substantial similarity" between the two songs.
So far, surviving Led Zeppelin members Page and John Paul Jones have taken the stand to testify in the closely watched case. Page said that he did not hear "Taurus" before he created "Stairway To Heaven," but had heard it for the first time a few years ago when a comparison between the two tracks surfaced online.
Read more at Courthouse News Service.
