The verdict that cleared Led Zeppelin stars Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in a plagiarism dispute over their hit Stairway to Heaven has been appealed against.
The veteran rockers were cleared by a jury earlier this year of plagiarising the song’s famous guitar intro.
Jimmy Page (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
The jury in Los Angeles found the musicians did not lift the opening chords of instrumental track Taurus, written by American band Spirit, for their 1971 hit.
An appeal has now been made by Michael Skidmore, who filed the original lawsuit, the trustee of Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe.
Michael Skidmore outside court in LA (Nick Ut/AP)
Wolfe, who was known as Randy California, drowned in 1997 having never taken legal action over the song.
Following a week-long trial, a jury found that Taurus and Stairway To Heaven were not “extrinsically similar”.
After the verdict, Page and Plant said the origins of Stairway To Heaven had been put “to rest”.
Lawyers for Mr Wolfe’s trust had asked for him to be given a third credit for the hit song, which has earned millions of pounds since it featured on the album Led Zeppelin IV.
Janet Wolfe holds a photo of her brother Randy Wolfe (Nick Ut/AP)
The court heard that Page and Plant had earned 58.5 million dollars (£40 million) from Stairway To Heaven and other Led Zeppelin songs over the past five years.
After the verdict, Mr Skidmore’s lawyer Francis Malofiy said he was “disappointed” with the jury’s ruling and “justice wasn’t served”.
“There are obviously issues that can be appealed,” he said.
Mr Malofiy said the lawsuit had been brought 45 years after the release of Stairway To Heaven because of a change in the law in 2014.
Speaking outside court, Mr Skidmore said: “Money has triumphed over common sense.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel