Led Zeppelin wins ‘Stairway’ case, again

A California federal appeals court has rejected an appeal of the 2016 finding that Led Zeppelin did not copy its signature song “Stairway to Heaven” from Spirit.

At issue was a guitar riff from “Taurus” by guitarist Randy California.

The appeals court said March 9 that the guitarist estate’s arguments were “garden variety” and lacking in substance.

Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote for the majority and found just “random similarities” in the two songs, and said the plaintiffs sought to copyright “a combination of unprotectable elements.” There was no liability for taking “ideas and concepts” from the plaintiff’s work.

The song in question was Spirit’s “Taurus,” an atmospheric 3-minute instrumental on Spirit’s debut album, released in 1968. It is a deep cut mostly known to Spirit fans. The global hit “Stairway to Heaven” debuted on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, in 1971.

Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant both took the stand in the original “Stairway to Heaven” trial, saying the similar material in the songs came down to a commonplace “descending chromatic scale of pitches” used throughout musical history.

The March 2020 ruling was an unusual en banc (all judges) decision, signifying an important ruling. The case was closely watched by the music industry. The attorney for California’s estate said he would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court had thrown out the L.A. verdict after ruling that jurors received faulty instructions. The 11-member appeals court rejected that finding. The March 9 ruling reinstated the verdict, and most likely means Plant and Page will not have to stand trial again.

“The trial and appeal process has been a long climb up the ‘Stairway to Heaven,'” the court noted. “The parties and their counsel have acquitted themselves well in presenting complicated questions of copyright law.”

Jurors in the original Los Angeles trial were not allowed to hear the recordings involved. The federal judges backed that decision as well as several other ground rules from the trial. The trial’s scope was limited to the source copyright filed in 1967, a one-sheet of California’s written music.

The case is Skidmore vs. Led Zeppelin.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2014, although the songs’ similarities have long been debated. California, also known as Randy Wolfe, drowned in Hawaii in 1997. He had noted the similarities but never sued.

Led Zeppelin’s songwriting ethics have been called into question over the decades. Tracks involved in past authorship controversies included “The Lemon Song,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “How Many More Times,” “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “Dazed and Confused.” In a few cases, song credits were changed after the original recordings.