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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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You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @02:46PM (14 children)
Funny how copyright maximalists expect it to be everyone else's job to police their works for copyright infringement.
If you don't become aware of a similar song or chord progression on a popular song for many years, then I have to wonder whether it should even qualify as a copyright infringement. I could maybe have a bit more sympathy if someone discovered some obscure little known song to have infringed their copyright -- but then I would have to ask if that song had in any way damaged the market value of what is allegedly infringed upon.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:22PM (13 children)
False dichotomy. Nobody has to police it. Even the assertion that someone should have to listen to every new song produced in the world or forfeit their right to sue on any they didn't is ludicrous.
That's because you refuse to understand the utility of copyright at all. Yes, the current duration is so absurdly long that it should be overturned by SCOTUS as being functionally eternal but how it started out in the US was a fairly reasonable compromise. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water just because you're pissed off.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:49PM (9 children)
At this point it really *would* be better to just revoke all copyright laws. That's a sorrowful statement, because copyright *should* serve a useful purpose, and for a long time it did, but the way things are now we'd be better off without any. If you could just revert to a term of 17 years with one extension I'd say "Well, OK" but with rapid communication and cheap publication I think even that's too long.
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, @04:01PM (8 children)
No, no it would not. Much like it wouldn't be a good thing to shut off all coal/nuclear power without anything to immediately replace it. Being pissed off, righteously or not, does not turn unwise into wise.
I'd say seven years with an option on a seven year extension (for most things) if you're willing to pay 25% of your gross as a fee during that second seven years.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @05:07PM (5 children)
I'd like to share that advice with Trump supporters. Or even Trump himself.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:14AM (4 children)
Man, that needs to be a bumper sticker. No, it needs to be on every license plate.
Trump was still the wiser choice though if you're not into having a shadow government that gives not a fuck what the people who voted them in wanted. And versus either Biden or Bernie a literal clown from an actual circus would even be wiser.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:06PM (3 children)
In some sense we got a clown.
The sad thing is that these are the candidates that 'float' to the top?
But especially Trump. If Trumpers were unhappy with Hillary (which I understand) could they, collectively as a party, not come up with a better candidate than Trump? I didn't like GWB but I at least had some respect for him and thought he was basically honorable if a bit dim witted. But Trump? That vulgar obscenity? How is it those people picked that, and continue to support him? It boggles the mind. And further brings more division. The pendulum always swings back and forth, but some people don't seem to think that far ahead. Or about rules and lines not to cross, because they might not like the same rules and dirty tricks when the shoe is on the other foot. But no. Nobody seems to think that far ahead.
I hate to see what is coming no matter who gets elected.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @11:04AM (2 children)
Yeah, that's why I was specific as to it being a proper clown.
Nah, he was the one closest to what they wanted and by primaries time it's too late to organize a campaign because all of the choices suck. In case you're not quite clear on what they wanted, they wanted a middle finger to the political establishment, business as usual, and politicians on the right who apologize for not being politically correct enough when the left defines political correctness.
Now there were lots of other issues-related reasons but those are the ones that were pretty well universal to all his voters and why him instead of anyone else who ran in the primaries.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday March 13 2020, @05:55PM (1 child)
I was, but am no longer happy with the Democratic candidates. I guess the worst really do float to the top. Brace yourself, no matter what happens.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @10:27PM
What for? I mean, it's just gonna be four more years of the same and Trump ain't fucked anything up any worse than any other President in the first four.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday March 10 2020, @09:53PM (1 child)
I would further that and say that only the actual creators should ever be able to own a copyright. No being forced to give up your copyright just to get a recording contract or such. They can lease distribution to another party for the first seven years, but after that term is up all rights go back to the creators and another lease must be contracted for the second seven years.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:16AM
Disallow exclusive deals (the kind that prohibit you from dealing with anyone else rather than the kind where you don't want to deal with anyone else) and that goes right away. And you get more competition. Yay competition!
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:56PM (2 children)
What is that fairly reasonable compromise? If you don't mind me asking.
I'm under the impression that copyright originally (maybe predating the US) was to protect cartographers.
It seems we might agree that whatever reasonable balance copyright might have once had in the US, that balance has been completely upended by, first the music industry, and then the motion picture industry.
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(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:02PM
Truth. See slightly above.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dry on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:37PM
While copyright was first used to protect the stationers guild and for censorship after the invention of printing, the first modern copyright act had it right in its long title,
And even then the publishers were arguing it was for the artists while ripping them off.