it_is_the_light wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 7:02pm:




Dear master Light,


And the rock Gods never stole a stairway to heaven either.

Ye hath judged before the outcome of the trial.

this is forgiven

namaste


Quote:

it_is_the_light wrote on Jun 20^th, 2016 at 4:24pm:


Look, Lightboy, you don't know what you are talking about. Stairway to Heaven is not riff based, (short repeating phrase) and you cannot copyright a chord progression (harmonic structure). If you could do that, you could sue every Jazz musician that ever made a record. The court case hinges on whether the two songs have the same melody. And no, you are not forgiven.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/led-zeppelin-stairway-trial-gets-ugly-as-...

Led Zeppelin 'Stairway' Trial Gets Ugly as Plaintiffs Rest Their Case

John Paul Jones debunks longstanding myths, while the defense tries, and fails, for a "Gotcha!" moment


The Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" trial got ugly in its fourth day as the defense tried, and failed, for a "Gotcha!" moment. Mona Shafer Edwards

The surviving members of Led Zeppelin squashed one of the group's most established and enduring mythologies when the band's bassist/keyboardist/songwriter John Paul Jones took the stand in day four of the copyright infringement suit "Michael Skidmore vs. Led Zeppelin et al."

It was a rare public reunion for Jones and his former bandmates, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, with Jones appearing as a witness to support Led Zeppelin's defense in the case involving similarities between Zep classic "Stairway to Heaven" and "Taurus," an instrumental composition from the Sixties-era rock band Spirit.

Apparently, the defense team had concluded no one on the jury is a loyal reader of Mojo: Jones' appearance served mainly to quash the narrative, faithfully recounted for nearly five decades, of how Page and Plant came back from the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in the Welsh mountains with the beginnings of "Stairway to Heaven" to play to the rest of Led Zeppelin - a surprising assertion Page had also made under oath on Thursday.

In his cross-examination with the plaintiff's counsel Francis Malofiy, Jones was confronted with the playback of an audio recording of a 1972 BBC interview where he stated, "We were all in the country at Headley Grange when [Page and Plant] came back from the Welsh mountains with a guitar intro, verse and maybe more [of "Stairway to Heaven]." Under oath, Jones disputed the veracity of his earlier claims: "It sounded like I was guessing. I was guessing."



Jimmy Page Testifies as 'Stairway to Heaven' Trial Heats Up »

Jones was also grilled as to how Led Zeppelin came to play the Spirit song "Fresh-Garbage" - built largely around a prominent bass part - as part of the group's earliest live sets. "I forgot who introduced it - I can't remember," Jones testified. "It was a two-bar bass riff that popped out from somewhere. It was a catchy little riff, had an interesting time thing and it caught my ear. I didn't know where it was from."

Jones also claimed that he thought all of the cover songs played by Led Zeppelin in its famed early tour of Scandinavia billed as the "New Yardbirds" were "all Yardbirds songs." When asked if he'd ever seen Spirit live, he claimed that, in the late Sixties and Seventies before the composition and recording of "Stairway," he'd never "gone to any rock concerts, other than playing with Led Zeppelin."

Malofiy's cross examination of Jones also represented the end of the plaintiff's time to plead its case to the court, having used up all 10 hours allotted by the judge presiding over the federal civil trial, Gary Klausner. With several defense witnesses remaining on the docket - including, potentially, Page's co-defendant, Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant -  Judge Klausner made an unusual exception: Malofiy would be allowed to cross-examine all of Led Zeppelin's witnesses for just 10 minutes each.

The numbers that came out of the testimony of Dr. Michael Einhorn, a Yale-educated economist who appeared as an expert witness for the plaintiff side, were also tantalizing. In his analysis, Einhorn revealed Page, Plant, Jones and the heirs of drummer John Bonham split £58.5 million across all 87 songs in the Zeppelin catalog in the three-year statutory period being hotly debated throughout the trial. However, Einhorn claimed the defense had not provided him with the "pro-rate technology" used to determine exactly how much of those monies came specifically from "Stairway" royalties.


"You don't have to play to the jury" was an admonishment Judge Klausner bestowed on both sides' counsel throughout the day's proceedings. But the most astonishing example of that strategy came not from the notoriously hotheaded Malofiy, but Led Zeppelin main counsel Peter Anderson, whose patrician white-shoe countenance has been a defining feature of his defense. During Anderson's cross-examination of the trial's plaintiff, Michael Skidmore - the trustee of "Taurus" songwriter Randy "California" Wolfe's estate - Anderson asked Skidmore if "it made a difference to [Wolfe's mother] Berenice Pearl if [Wolfe's only surviving heir] Quinn Wolfe [was cut out of receiving royalties] because he was the illegitimate son of Randy Wolfe?"

It was a "gotcha!" moment that backfired - more expected coming from, say, a trial in Game of Thrones or an old episode of Days of Our Lives. It provided perhaps the ugliest moment of a contentious trial, and was quickly ruled as legally inadmissible by Judge Klausner.

I think the amusing thing to remember is regardless of who wins, if a 15 yr old kid is going to download a song from iTunes looking fora classic is he going to downloaud Spirit or Stairway?

Link.

Quote:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3653608/Robert-Plant-remember-watching-U...

Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant 'can't remember' watching band who accuse him of stealing Stairway to Heaven riff

Led Zeppelin star Robert Plant told a court a serious car crash left him with memory loss
On the same night in 1970 he saw American band Spirit perform
He claims he can't remember the show at Birmingham's Mothers club
And added he 'can't recall almost anyone' to the jury in Los Angeles
He and Jimmy Page are accused of stealing the riff for Stairway to Heaven from Spirit song Taurus
Scroll down for video comparing the songs of the two bands




By PRESS ASSOCIATION and MAILONLINE REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 13:57 EST, 22 June 2016 | UPDATED: 18:15 EST, 22 June 2016




(  )

The frontman and guitarist Jimmy Page are being sued in a copyright dispute brought by the American band Spirit, who claim the classic 1971 hit was 'lifted' from their instrumental track Taurus.


A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe - known as Randy California - who drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.
Scroll down for video comparing the songs

The answer is over the hills and far away:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/led-zeppelin-stairway-trial-goes-to-jury-...

Led Zeppelin 'Stairway' Trial Goes to Jury as Both Sides Plead Case

Quote:


BY MATT DIEHL June 22, 2016



The Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" trial is now in the hands of a jury as both sides presented closing arguments. Mona Shafer Edwards

The copyright infringement lawsuit against Led Zeppelin over the songwriting credits and profits of its classic "Stairway to Heaven" has now gone to the jury, which began deliberations Wednesday morning.



In the sixth day of the case - "Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin et al" (the "et al" referring to corporate defendants Atlantic Records, Rhino Records and Warner/Chappell Music) - both sides made final arguments in Court 850 of Los Angeles' Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse. The presiding judge, Gary Klausner, allotted counsel representing the plaintiffs (the trust of Randy "California" Wolfe, whose composition "Taurus" for the band Spirit they allege has been plagiarized) and Zeppelin's defense team 45 minutes each to convince the eight-person jury of their arguments.

The plaintiff's controversial attorney, Francis Malofiy, began the proceedings, giving his best performance to date in the trial - concisely summing up the various themes he'd presented with clarity and force and largely never veering out of control. (Judge Klausner has repeatedly sustained objections over procedure against Malofiy throughout the trial.)  "This case is about one thing: credit," Malofiy began, noting his plaintiff requested songwriting credit for Wolfe and one-third of royalties of "Stairway." "This case is about copying. Give. Credit. Where. Credit. Is. Due."

Malofiy reiterated testimony from the plaintiff's expert witnesses that both "Taurus" (an instrumental) and "Stairway" share "substantial similarity" in their use of a descending chromatic scale "in a unique and original way ... That is memorable and unique." He attacked Jimmy Page and Robert Plant as having a "selective memory" on the stand, asking if their "memory is better now or in 1969 or 1970" (at which time the Zep members gave interviews that seemed to contradict their testimony about their knowledge and appreciation of Spirit's material, as well as having seen the band live).

Those interviews - both in their raw audio form and in print - alongside Zeppelin having covered Spirit's song "Fresh-Garbage," served as a smoking gun in the plaintiffs' eyes that proved the band had "access" to Spirit recordings. Malofiy also cited the fact that Page owned five Spirit albums, including its 1968 self-titled debut that included "Taurus," and that Page's testimony contradicting ancient Zeppelin folklore that the intro of "Stairway" was written at the Welsh cottage Bron-Yr-Aur was a "complete rewriting of history."

Malofiy also seemed to rub in the defense's face that they were unable to call an expert witness to assess damages: He told the jury it had wide latitude to assess damages as "somewhere in the middle" of $10 million alleged gross profits, adjusting for the fact that "Stairway" is one of Zeppelin's most popular songs in its catalog.

Malofiy did have some spurious and humorous moments in his final arguments, however. He continued to emphasize the legally questionable "Jimi Hendrix defense," going on about Wolfe's early association with the guitar god. (Not surprising considering Malofiy once sued the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for "falsification of rock and roll history," a claim repeated in his case against Led Zeppelin.)

He also repeated the absurd assertion that Jimmy Page's ability to write original songs was compromised by his time as a session musician "playing others' music." Malofiy seemed to approach the case on a pass/fail basis: In his rebuttal to the defense, he reminded the jury members that he only needed to prove his case by "51 percent" - sticking his arms out and tilting his body as if he'd become the personification of the scales of justice himself.

The defense's lead counsel, Peter Anderson, also displayed humor in his final argument - often to his advantage. "The best place to start is [Malofiy said the case could be summed] up in six words from the Bible: 'In the beginning God created...' He promised six words but delivered only five - and throughout this case he's made more promises, but hasn't delivered."

Anderson had some setbacks early on, though. He repeated his assertion that Hollenbeck Music (a publishing concern owned by legendary music producer and impresario Lou Adler) actually owned the "Taurus" copyright; that argument was rendered null, however, when Judge Klausner affirmed, in his instructions to the jury, that the trustees of Randy Wolfe's estate indeed own the "Taurus" copyright.