Led Zeppelin has been cleared of accusations of plagiarizing the song "Stairway to Heaven" from US band, Spirit. BBC online reported that upon further investigation, a jury has found that the opening instrumental was originally composed.
The remaining members of Led Zeppelin - lead Robert Plan, guitarist Jimmy Page, and bassist John Paul - were sued by the estate of the late Randy California for allegedly copying a passage from his original 1968 song "Taurus."
These claims were made under the assumption that Led Zeppelin became familiar with Taurus' song after they played on the same stage together during a concert way back 1970. Page denied the accusations and said he was not familiar with the tune of the song until recently when they were being accused. He did admit that tune from Spirit's "Fresh Garbage" was played but only during their debut performance. But they never claimed that they were the original composers.
Alexander Stewart, a musicologist, contested that the chords and harmonies were virtually similar. Page responded that "Stairway to Heaven" used a similar chord from the Mary Poppins song "Chim Chim Cheree," which was used commonly. His statement was supported by a music professor from New York University, Lawrence Ferrara, who explained that the chords Page used was very common. The progression was a musical building block, which has frequently been used in music for 300 years now.
There are speculations that the lawsuit was filed because of income related reasons. In over five years, the song was able to generate a revenue of nearly $60 million. In their copyright infringement complaints, Wolfe's lawyers demanded a third of the earnings.
In the end, the juries found out that the two songs contained insufficient similarities to prove copyright infringement.
