Copyright row over "Stairway to Heaven"

[Farrell Jackson]

Just a little more fuel for this Heavy Hindenburg fire  

Apparently there are several Led Zeppelin songs that have similarities to other older songs. Scroll to the bottom to read the list.

http://dirtcitychronicles.blogspot.com/2012/06/dazed-and-confused.html

Farrell

[T.C. Elliott]

I think the ones that aren't musically inclined are the ones who will say it sounds exactly like stairway to heaven.
In fact I heard a female DJ say that this morning on the radio, and I thought to myself. She's an idiot!  

The problem is that jurors in a civil court case (when you sue someone) are generally more musically illiterate than that female DJ.  That's how Harrison lost his My Sweet Lord case. Of course he won eventually just by buying the rights to song he supposedly ripped off.

[64Guitars]

Looks like this battle is finally over and Led Zeppelin has won.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54423922

[Frank53]

That was a difficult claim to begin with. Some similarity, but hard to show infringement. Led Zep (as has been noted) has much more egregious and obvious copying issues in their repertoire. There have been a number of successful suits over the years involving just a few notes, which is pretty insane. Popular music is so derivative, it becomes increasingly difficult to be totally original. Adam Neely has a great take on Copyright infringement here...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ytoUuO-qvg