For justice, "Stairway to Heaven" is definitely not plagiarism

Led Zeppelin in 1975 -

The legal battle lasted six years.

But now it is certain: the legendary British rock group Led Zeppelin is indeed the creator of the planetary

, released in 1971. Exit therefore the accusations of plagiarism brought by the beneficiaries of the Californian group Spirit.

Rock legend against esteem success

Last resort of the plaintiffs, the Supreme Court of the United States refused on Monday to take up this case, thus making final the previous judgments which considered that Led Zeppelin was indeed the author of this rock classic, which brought in millions of dollars. dollars.

Last March, a San Francisco appeals court upheld a judgment rendered at first instance in Los Angeles in 2016 that

did not copy the instrumental track

, composed by Spirit, a psychedelic group from the 1960s who did not has never exceeded esteem success.

At the time, the judges ruled that Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had had access to Spirit's song.

But the plaintiffs, who claimed between $ 3 million and $ 13 million in copyright, had failed to prove that elements of

were "intrinsically similar" to the

more long-running

introduction.

two minutes.

In 2016, Jimmy Page had said at the bar that the series of agreements at the heart of the plagiarism trial "had always circulated".

Drowning in 1997

In 2018, however, this judgment was quashed during a first appeal procedure, for legal reasons.

The members of Led Zeppelin had therefore requested and obtained a review of this judgment by the San Francisco Court of Appeal.

The civil proceedings were initiated in 2014 by a journalist representing the beneficiaries of Randy Wolfe, leader of the Spirit group.

The guitarist, who composed

, had never taken legal action before his death by drowning in 1997. However, he maintained for a long time with his relatives and in certain press articles that he deserved writing credit for

, calling the song “theft”.

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• Copyright

• Music

• Plagiarism

• Rock

• Culture