A federal court jury in Los Angeles two years ago found Led
Zeppelin did not copy the famous riff from the song "Taurus" by the
band Spirit. But the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled unanimously that the lower court judge provided erroneous jury
instructions. It sent the case back to the court for another trial.
Led Zeppelin aboard the Starship 2 in 1975
Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the estate of late Spirit
guitarist Randy Wolfe, filed the law suit against Led Zeppelin in 2015.
Jurors returned their verdict for Led Zeppelin after a
five-day trial at which band members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant testified.
Page and Plant, who wrote the "Stairway" lyrics, said their creation
was an original.
The jury found "Stairway to Heaven" and
"Taurus" were not substantially similar, according the 9th Circuit
ruling.
But U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner failed to advise
jurors that while individual elements of a song such as its notes or scale may
not qualify for copyright protection, a combination of those elements may if it
is sufficiently original, 9th Circuit Judge Richard Paez said.
Led Zeppelin performing 'Stairway to Heaven' live in 1975
Klausner also wrongly told jurors that copyright does not protect chromatic scales, arpeggios or short sequences of three notes, the 9th Circuit panel found.
"This error was not harmless as it undercut testimony
by Skidmore's expert that Led Zeppelin copied a chromatic scale that had been
used in an original manner," Paez said.
The panel also found another jury instruction misleading.
The trial took jurors and lucky observers who managed to
pack into the courtroom on a musical journey through the late 1960s and early
1970s, when Spirit, a California psychedelic group that blended jazz and rock
was achieving stardom as the hard-rocking British band was being founded.
SOURCE: Wild Hog Radio
