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Led Zeppelin have triumphed in a long-running copyright dispute after a US appeals court ruled they did not steal the opening riff in Stairway To Heaven.
The British rock legends were accused in 2014 of ripping off a song called Taurus by the US band Spirit.
Taurus was written in 1968, three years before Stairway To Heaven.
Now, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has upheld a 2016 trial verdict that found Led Zeppelin did not copy it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51805905
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Appeals Court Rules Led Zeppelin Did Not Steal Stairway to Heaven Riff
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Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:51AM (22 children)
They do sound very similar.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:24AM (10 children)
So do lots of songs [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Common Joe on Tuesday March 10 2020, @08:28AM (8 children)
Lots and lots of songs [youtube.com]. The link I provided is my favorite. It mashes six country songs together. At the end, they literally play all six at the same time. I'm not a big country music lover (not a hater either), but I find it absolutely astounding to listen to.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:17AM (3 children)
Lots of things use the same parts.
Did Chevrolet violate Ford's patents if they also used SAE bolts and nuts?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:26PM (2 children)
Pretty sure there were mountains of prior art by the time the first Chevrolet rolled off the line. Nothing in the world wrong with using public domain technology along with patentable parts.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:54PM (1 child)
That doesn't excuse the way copyright derivation is interpreted. Or the ridiculous lengths. Or much of anything else about current copyright law...like the expense of either defending or prosecuting.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:56PM
Copyright ain't patents. Different critters entirely. The rest, that's another matter entirely and one we probably wouldn't disagree on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 10 2020, @11:42AM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:48PM (2 children)
Yup. Cookie-cutter pop stars in boots singing the same six songs with nothing but cosmetic and gender changes.Zero storytelling. I miss Marty Robbins and Hank Williams. Willie and Dolly still write the occasional gem but they're not gonna be around forever.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:03AM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:04AM
Based on real shit too. Jolene was a real person that worked at the local bank. Dolly went up there to do some "Bitch, my man ain't yo baby's daddy"-fu and Jolene whooped her ass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 10 2020, @10:02AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:22AM (4 children)
I have bad news for you. All blues is essentially the same song. Ditto for rock and roll.
The song is probably inspired by Taurus, but not enough to be plagiarism IMO too.
Plus, Taurus did not tune those fucking guitars and they deserve to be sued for that reason only.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:50PM (3 children)
Some modern music is made of:
* 3 parts modem noise
* 4 parts bass line
* 2 parts simplistic repetitive melody
* 1 part incomprehensible vocal
Does each of these "musical works" infringe upon each other?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday March 10 2020, @10:20PM (2 children)
Most electronic music has devolved,since 1989 for the mainstream and since the trance and progressive scene of the mid 90s in general.
It has turned into the equivalent of clothing fashion, where the novelty is in the tech and old ideas get reissued using it.
But among the sheer amount of useless stuff you can cut out your interesting genre exploration, if you can do it in pop jazz rock indie hip hop, then you can surely do it in electronic. In fact you can do it even if you limit yourself to nu disco or old school house. As long as the subgenre isn't popular. If it's the popular one, expect it to be filled with metoos and 'experts' and profiteers.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday March 11 2020, @02:54PM (1 child)
At least they make up for it by increasing the mp3 bitrate up to 96 kbps to ensure highest audio fidelity.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday March 11 2020, @03:01PM
I prefer crisp and clear 7.5 Kbps sound [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday March 10 2020, @01:44PM (3 children)
One could argue this is different, but along the same lines I would like to offer up this all-time-favorite example of mine.
Rapture Riders [youtube.com] = Rapture - Blondie [youtube.com] + Riders on the Storm - The Doors [youtube.com]
I can still, vividly, recall when I first heard this on the radio while driving through town. I had to pull over to the side of the road! My brain kept struggling and alternating between giving primacy to the melody and then the lyrics and back again!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:15PM
Man! The Doors ripped off Blondie! Shame! Harumph harumph!
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:54PM
Kid Rock did a pretty damn good job meshing Werewolves of London [youtube.com] and Sweet Home Alabama [youtube.com] and to create something entirely new and worthwhile in All Summer Long [youtube.com] as well.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday March 10 2020, @11:14PM
Hehe then enjoy this label, https://www.junodownload.com/products/mashed-up-funk-vol-7/1543818-02/ [junodownload.com]
The trick for the song you posted is that both songs are harmonically quite plain. And possibly already in key (nothing librubberband can't fix)
Good matches are kid creme's "Doing my own thang" loop with Seymour Bits (which should be a system analyst/programmer) "Bonparapara Attack!" or Tony Rallo's "Holdin' on" loop with "Street Player" (Chicago) remix loop... same
I had myself two unknown tracks that matched perfectly, https://www.mixcloud.com/do7ob/all-vinyl-mix-march-2000-future-boogie-nu-disco-house/ [mixcloud.com] from 19:38 to 21:38 are simply overlayed. No editing, no re cue no pitch shift. All you needed to do was keeping the beat in sync.
It's more rewarding when harmonic variations match, my fave vinyl era live mashup was with one song that had a distinct progression, that is Cerrone's Je suis music (cappella) with michael gray's The weekend (the original version, which was mostly instrumental). When I find the two records I post it somewhere.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 10 2020, @06:33PM
Yeah but Stairway to Heaven sounds like a much better version. Taurus is "meh" and will mostly only be remembered by those in the 1960s and 1970s scene.
It's like me being the first to cook a dish that's somewhat edible and then a few years later a luckier or more talented chef makes a much better version of it that's become world famous. Then decades AFTER I'm dead, my good for nothing descendants or worse try to sue the chef to make some money when those leeches didn't do a fucking thing. Fuck them.
They can give bullshit about fighting for the artist's recognition etc, but the original artist knew the guys and the song, why didn't he bother suing during the decades while he was alive? Go figure.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday March 11 2020, @12:12AM
Umm no they don't there's a descending chord bit that's similar, nothing else is. Unless they've copyrighted descending chords, which is impossible as there's prior art for _centuries_ from all sorts of music genres from all sorts of cultures over the world.