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Post new topic Led Zeppelin Wins Appeal - Stairway to Heaven
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Author Topic:  Led Zeppelin Wins Appeal - Stairway to Heaven
Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 3:08 pm    
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The six year copyright dispute is over. The appeals court said Led Zepp did not illegally borrow from Spirit's 1968 track "Taurus." Among other things, the judges said that that they would not extend copyright protection to just a few notes. ..."a four-note sequence common in the music field is not the copyrightable expression in a song."

More here ---> https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/led-zeppelin-wins-stairway-heaven-copyright-dispute-n1153381
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Jim Cohen


From:
Philadelphia, PA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 3:59 pm     Re: Led Zeppelin Wins Appeal - Stairway to Heaven
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Doug Beaumier wrote:
The six year copyright dispute is over.

Well, actually it was over 4 years ago, when the article you linked was published. But it's still true (I think)! Wink
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 5:50 pm    
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Nope Jim, This is new news, a new case, an appeal of the earlier decision. The date on the article is today, March 9, 2020. The appeals court issued their ruling today. So that's the end of the line for the greedy relatives of the guy in Spirit who died years ago. Oh Well A lot of other sites reporting this today. Note the date on the Rolling Stone article.





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Last edited by Doug Beaumier on 9 Mar 2020 6:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Jim Cohen


From:
Philadelphia, PA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 5:58 pm    
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Well, ain't that peculiar! Because every time I click the link in your first post, it takes me to a 2016 article. Here's the screen shot:



But the BEST part is that the current article you're showing in your 2nd post was written by Jon Blistein, whom we have known since my wife and his mother (still very close friends) were in childbirthing class together 30 years ago! He and our son were best of friends growing up and he now writes for Rolling Stone (as you see). LOL!
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 6:14 pm    
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Ah, it's confusing, but if you look closer you'll see today's date at the bottom where the text starts. Evidently the video they show displays an old date. I'm glad we got this sorted out. I didn't know if I was going crazy or you were! Laughing Laughing


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Dave Mudgett


From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 6:15 pm    
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This looks like a very good ruling to me. Other features:
Quote:
The court's decision may establish new standards in the music industry, which, coinciding with the rise of streaming platforms, has been plagued by a flurry of copyright lawsuits in recent years. In issuing its ruling, the court overturned the "inverse ratio rule," which stated that the more access an alleged infringer has to a plaintiff's work, the less similarity between the works was needed to establish infringement.

"The flaws in the rule can be seen in the inconsistent ways in which we have applied the rule within our circuit," reads the opinion. "Nothing in copyright law suggests that a work deserves stronger legal protection simply because it is more popular or owned by better-funded rights holders.

The voice of reason has spoken, IMHO. I hope this does in fact establish a precedent
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 9 Mar 2020 6:32 pm    
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I agree, Dave. The "inverse ratio rule" seems to imply that the more popular a song is, the more likely the defendant was to have copied it. That's kind of a flimsy rationale for deciding a copyright case.
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Joachim Kettner


From:
Germany
Post  Posted 10 Mar 2020 7:35 am    
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I wonder if there was any consideration by the jury about the age of the tune, more than fifty years old...what may be quite common today was maybe not so in yesteryears. A chromatically descending bassline in a minor chord in a pop tune, only brings to my mind the Beatles "Michelle" but it was played at a higher Tempo.
Otherwise I can't think of other examples. I don't know much about Bossa Nova or Classical Music were imho this bassline could stem from.
Led Zeppelin also toured with Spirit in '68 and at the same with Jake Holmes, whose song Dazed And Confused went uncredited and therfore he never received any royalties until much later. And he had to go to court! For me this decision is highly suspious.
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Jim Cohen


From:
Philadelphia, PA
Post  Posted 10 Mar 2020 7:41 am    
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Never having heard "Taurus" before, I found this little video interesting: https://youtu.be/-MBKJDmE-OQ
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Jon Light


From:
Saugerties, NY
Post  Posted 10 Mar 2020 9:05 am    
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Zep stands pretty rightfully accused of many violations of basic decency (at the very, very least) involving failure to share credit for songs (or outright plagiarism). And I don't hate Zep and I have no ax to grind.
But this particular case always struck me as exceedingly weak and I'm glad for the outcome.
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Charlie McDonald


From:
out of the blue
Post  Posted 10 Mar 2020 10:04 am    
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I thought it was weak also. I was listening to Taurus before I heard Stairway. So were Led Zep. So did Zappa. So what.
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Joachim Kettner


From:
Germany
Post  Posted 10 Mar 2020 11:46 am    
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Randy california drowned in the Pacific Ocean to save his son from drowning. I am sure his remaining family could use some cash. The remaining members of the phallus cult could at least have acknowledged his influence and compensated the remaining family.
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Travis Wilson


From:
Johnson City, TX
Post  Posted 11 Mar 2020 5:46 am    
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To me, the rip-off is obvious. I don’t understand how Robin Thicke, Ed Sheeran or Katy Perry lost their lawsuits or had to settle when this is so much more closer to the song in question than theirs. I guess just better lawyers.

Of course, I’m just going by my ears on the Stairway comparison. I haven’t actually analyzed the sheet music.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 11 Mar 2020 6:11 am    
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The only similarity I hear is that short minor chord pattern with descending bass line. Other than that the songs are nothing alike. And that chord pattern appears in many other songs... like Blue Skies, Summer Rain, and Chim Chim Cher-ee. As the court said, a common four-note sequence is not copyrightable.
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Chris Walke

 

From:
St Charles, IL
Post  Posted 12 Mar 2020 6:50 am    
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So, if you think Zep should not have won the case, do you think ZZ Topp should have been rightfully sued by John Lee Hooker for LaGrange?
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 12 Mar 2020 7:22 am    
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Quote:
...ZZ Topp should have been rightfully sued by John Lee Hooker for LaGrange?


That's a great example. That was such an obvious ripoff, I always assumed it was a tribute to John Lee Hooker.
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Chris Walke

 

From:
St Charles, IL
Post  Posted 13 Mar 2020 8:39 am    
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Doug Beaumier wrote:
Quote:
...ZZ Topp should have been rightfully sued by John Lee Hooker for LaGrange?


That's a great example. That was such an obvious ripoff, I always assumed it was a tribute to John Lee Hooker.


Yeah, I always wonder - we're talking about a chord prog for the Zeppelin thing. But no one can copyright a chord progression. Otherwise, what about 12-bar blues? What about classic I-IV-V progs? What about the seemingly current fave, I-V-iii-IV progression? I don't know where the line is.
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Doug Beaumier


From:
Northampton, MA
Post  Posted 13 Mar 2020 8:53 am    
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True, and how many hundreds of 1950's songs have a 1 6m 4 5 pattern? Shocked Smile
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