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Appeals Court Rules Led Zeppelin Did Not Steal Stairway to Heaven Riff

posted by martyb on Tuesday March 10 2020, @03:25AM   Printer-friendly
from the Name-That-Tune-In-5-Notes dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by dry on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:37PM

    by dry (223) on Tuesday March 10 2020, @04:37PM (#969153) Journal

    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,

    An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned.

    And even then the publishers were arguing it was for the artists while ripping them off.

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