# Copyright appeal for "Stairway" -- NYT



## JohnG (Sep 22, 2019)

*Original or Copied? ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Is Back in Court*
By Ben Sisario
Sept. 22, 2019, 2:19 p.m. ET


On Monday, a federal appeals court will consider a copyright claim against their anthem “Stairway to 
Heaven." 

It seems only fitting that the most epic and dramatic of rock songs has resulted in one of the music industry’s most epic copyright fights. 

“Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin’s 1971 megahit, defined rock radio for decades and helped make its credited writers, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, extremely rich. For the last five years, it has been caught up in a copyright infringement case that has gripped the music industry. In a hearing scheduled for Monday, a panel of 11 federal appellate judges in San Francisco will delve into the song’s authorship.
At issue is who wrote the song’s famous acoustic opening passage — Mr. Page and Mr. Plant, or Randy Wolfe of the 1960s psychedelic band Spirit. A larger question that could be settled by the court concerns what, exactly, constitutes an original song.

[New York Times article continues]


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## dzilizzi (Sep 22, 2019)

I am hoping Led Zep wins this one. Mostly because it isn't Randy Wolfe bringing the suit. If it bothered him so much, he should have done it back in the 70's or 80's, which makes me think he didn't really care. 

I am all for protecting copyright, but some of these cases are just wrong.


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## Thomas Kallweit (Sep 22, 2019)

It was a chord progression of the times or only a simple one? So Led Zep had sucess with it. Very tricky possibly to find the origin of it. Good luck for the advocates and judges.


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## erica-grace (Sep 22, 2019)

Wait - wasn't this litigated already, earlier this year?


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## JohnG (Sep 22, 2019)

erica-grace said:


> Wait - wasn't this litigated already, earlier this year?



it's an appeal


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## Reid Rosefelt (Sep 22, 2019)




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## Ivan M. (Sep 23, 2019)

These lawsuits are just a way to get money. Like patent trolling. The fact that they are nonsense is irrelevant.

Speaking of copyright generally, it needs to be relaxed, if someone took inspiration from my work, I would be proud. And that's the way things should and actually do go, composers always take inspiration from those before them, that's the only way music can move forward, it's a heritage.
It's also perfectly natural for people to create similar music, we are not islands, we all perceive it the same way, and will use say Maj7 chord in a love theme, or half steps dissonance for tension etc.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Sep 23, 2019)

Ivan M. said:


> These lawsuits are just a way to get money. Like patent trolling. The fact that they are nonsense is irrelevant.
> 
> Speaking of copyright generally, it needs to be relaxed, if someone took inspiration from my work, I would be proud. And that's the way things should and actually do go, composers always take inspiration from those before them, that's the only way music can move forward, it's a heritage.
> It's also perfectly natural for people to create similar music, we are not islands, we all perceive it the same way, and will use say Maj7 chord in a love theme, or half steps dissonance for tension etc.



Good points. The reality is (at least IMHO), there is no such thing as original music anymore. It's all been written already (over the centuries). We, as composers, are merely recycling the compositions into our own interpretations.


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## mistermister (Sep 23, 2019)

Ivan M. said:


> Speaking of copyright generally, it needs to be relaxed, if someone took inspiration from my work, I would be proud.


 All depends on a lot of context for me - what 'inspiration' is, did I release my work for free and now someone's profiting massively from it, is it sampling or is it recreation, and so on. Deciding on whether works been inspired, borrowed or stolen is a very subjective and personal thing.

It is also the fact that it all rolls under the same law. Someone inspired by my melody is enforced under the same law of someone taking a song I recorded and using it in a TV show without permission. One is a much more flagrant abuse than the other.

It's mostly trolling nowadays by the huge law companies, but not sure you should relax laws simply because some people abuse it and use the word of the law to defeat the spirit of the law.


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## JohnG (Oct 5, 2020)

Supreme court declines appeal. End of the road.









Led Zeppelin Wins Copyright Battle Over 'Stairway To Heaven'


The Supreme Court declined to hear whether Jimmy Page plagiarized an instrumental by 1960s band Spirit to create the riff for the classic 1971 rock ballad.




www.huffpost.com


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## Daryl (Oct 6, 2020)

JohnG said:


> Supreme court declines appeal. End of the road.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


And about time. Total nonsense, the whole thing.


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## Rex282 (Oct 6, 2020)

Jeremy Spencer said:


> Good points. The reality is (at least IMHO), there is no such thing as original music anymore. It's all been written already (over the centuries). We, as composers, are merely recycling the compositions into our own interpretations.


 I completely disagree with this it has not ALL be written before there is an infinite amount of original compositions to be written.It's because so many music composers are so unimaginative they imitate to death so it sounds the same.
A generation is coming soon that will create a paradigm shift in EVERYTHING and the musicians will lead the way and "pop music" will die and the new music will sound NOTHING like anything we have ever heard.


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## JonS (Oct 6, 2020)

JohnG said:


> Supreme court declines appeal. End of the road.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


How does one defeat Odin and Thor? Apparently the Supreme Court cannot.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Oct 6, 2020)

As Rick Beato points out in the video above, this was a descending chord progression, something used exactly the same way in some of the most popular songs of all time, like "In a Sentimental Mood" and "My Funny Valentine" and "Something." A progression that has no doubt been used in thousands of less familiar songs. I have used this device in my songs throughout my life, and I bet you all do too. Because we all can't reinvent the wheel every time we sit down to play. Sometimes I have used an ascending progression too, but please don't haul me into court.

Maybe an entire song with a melody there could be a point, as in "My Sweet Lord," but the Spirit song is just a brief chord progression and the Zeppelin song has a melody over the chords in question, and goes on and on and on from there. 

This is madness.

Someday the estate of Richard Berry is going to sue everybody for ripping off the three chords in "Louie, Louie." And then they'll turn around and sue themselves.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Oct 10, 2020)

Rex282 said:


> I completely disagree with this it has not ALL be written before there is an infinite amount of original compositions to be written.It's because so many music composers are so unimaginative they imitate to death so it sounds the same.
> A generation is coming soon that will create a paradigm shift in EVERYTHING and the musicians will lead the way and "pop music" will die and the new music will sound NOTHING like anything we have ever heard.



I sure hope so! But in our current world, I have yet to personally hear something 100% original sounding, in any genre.


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## telecode101 (Oct 11, 2020)

..


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