Led Zeppelin did not steal "Stairway to Heaven"

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Led Zepplin didn't steal music for 'Stairway to Heaven,' jury decides

I'm surprised this is still happening. It's obvious that there was no plagiarism. The songs don't even sound close and more importantly Stairway to Heaven is around 40 years old now. Why didn't this happen when the song was new?

I beg to differ- the similarities in the beginning are blatant.

Plant and Page are blatant plagiarists.

And I reckon (while we're about it) that Stairway To Heaven is overrated.

Hairway To Steven, that's where it's at.

plantpage's lawyers simply wiped the floor [did a better job of talking to the musically uneducated jurors] with the other side's attorneys, is all.

I'm musically educated and I agree with the jury.

Plagiarism is what Robin Thicke did to the Marvin Gaye song or what Kid Rock did to Werewolves of London. There are some similarities between the songs sure, but nowhere near enough to constitute plagiarism. I mean songs from different artist sound alike all the time. It's just the nature of music.

And if this was a legitimate case, why didn't it take place when the song was new rather than 40 something years after it was released?

IMHO there is more substantive backstory to "stairway to Taurus" than there was to "my sweet/he's so fine." but everybody has got their faves and their scapegoats and are gonna stick to their side no matter what.

This isn't really about favorites. I don't even really listen to Led Zeppelin. Spirit just didn't have nearly enough to substantiate their claim.

Look up the guitarworld website, at the section "5 songs that sound like stairway to heaven"

what hypocrisy really burns me, is that zep had the gall to sue little roger and the goosebumps for "stairway to Gilligan's island."

I'm not going to comment on that. I don't know the history with that story. That does sound very petty though. All I can really say is I think this one particular case was decided correctly.

Here is my opinion on it: there are some clear similarities between Taurus and Stairway, but they aren't identical, so I have no idea if Zep was inspired by it or not. Regardless, it doesn't matter, as it's not that one riff which made Stairway to Heaven great.

Maybe zepp should sue franz ferdinand for take me out sounding suspiciously like trampled under foot!

is there a hard and fast technical rule that adjudicators must go by when evaluating these things? like "three notes is coincidental but four is not?"

One of the main reason why I support this choice is that if it went the other way it would have lowered the bar significantly on what counts as plagiarism. It would have set a precedent and opened the legal system up to more of these kinds of lawsuits. There are so many songs that sound similar to each other so I think the number of lawsuits would balloon up.

The songs are definitely similar. They both have the descending base notes and the both start in a minor but that's also true of numerous other songs.

It's impossible for a band to steal a song that doesn't even come close.

In short no. There are a lot of different factors involved from how similar the sheet music is to how much access did the defendant have to the song in question.

Another thing that's somewhat related. Plagiarism in music wasn't an issue with folk singers and troubadours in the past. Musicians would routinely play other people songs and put their own spin on them. It was a common and accepted practice. It's one of the reasons why so many old folks songs don't have a writer attached to them, no one knows who they are.