Appeal filed in Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven copyright case - Action News
Home WebMail Wednesday, November 27, 2024, 12:49 AM | Calgary | -7.6°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Entertainment

Appeal filed in Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven copyright case

Lawyers have appealed a jury decision that cleared Led Zeppelin of accusations it lifted a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic rock anthem Stairway to Heaven.

Attorney for late musician Randy Wolfe's trust appeals jury ruling that cleared Zeppelin of stealing riff

Members of British rock band Led Zeppelin: bass player John Paul Jones (centre), lead singer Robert Plant (left) and guitarist Jimmy Page in 2012. An appeal has been filed in a jury ruling that cleared the band of stealing a riff for their famous song Stairway to Heaven. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Lawyers have appealed a jury decision that cleared Led Zeppelin of accusations it lifted a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic rock anthem Stairway to Heaven.

Anattorney for the trust of the late Randy Wolfe filed a notice of appeal last week in Los Angeles federal court.

The trust for Wolfe, better known as Randy California, failed to convince a jury last month that the British band swiped a passage to Stairwayfrom a short work he recorded with his band Spirit in 1968.

The filing does not provide legal arguments for why the case should be reconsidered.

Trust attorneys complained after the verdict that the judge did not allow jurors to hear the recording of Spirit's Taurus.

Instead, jurors had to rely on renditions from the sheet music because that is the copyright-protected work, though it differs from the band's recording.

Attorneys for Led Zeppelin and the other defendants, including their record label, are seeking close to $800,000 in legal and other fees from the trust because it failed to win.

A hearing on that matter is scheduled Aug. 8