{"id":436,"date":"2020-10-06T11:58:44","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T11:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/synchedin.com\/blog\/?p=436"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T13:40:45","slug":"led-zeppelin-win-stairway-to-heaven-copyright-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/licensing.routenote.com\/blog\/led-zeppelin-win-stairway-to-heaven-copyright-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Led Zeppelin Win &#8216;Stairway to Heaven&#8217; Copyright Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Led Zeppelin<\/strong> have effectively won their ongoing legal battle of their 1971 track <em>Stairway to Heaven<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The case was opened in 2014 by Michael Skidmore, a trustee representing the estate of Randy Wolfe of US band <strong>Spirit<\/strong>, accused Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of plagiarizing the opening guitar riff from <em>Taurus, <\/em>released in 1968<em> <\/em>by <strong>Spirit<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Led Zeppelin<\/strong> embarked on their North American tour in 1968 and happened to occasionally be on the same bill  as <strong>Spirit <\/strong>in 1968\/1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2016 Jimmy Page testified in a jury trial that he&#8217;d only heard the track <em>Taurus<\/em> in recent years.<br>However, that may be hard to believe as <strong>Led Zeppelin<\/strong> did know of <strong>Spirit <\/strong>at the time, by covering their track <em>Fresh Garbage<\/em> in their 1968 &amp; 1969 tour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Led Zeppelin   Fresh Garbage 01 10 1969\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hk2fkUzhG_Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The US Supreme Court declined to take on the case, meaning the earlier <a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov\/datastore\/opinions\/2020\/03\/09\/16-56057.pdf\">March 2020 ruling<\/a> in favour of Led Zeppelin will stand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Led Zeppelin have effectively won their ongoing legal battle of their 1971 track Stairway to Heaven. The case was opened in 2014 by Michael Skidmore, a trustee representing the estate of Randy Wolfe of US band Spirit, accused Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of plagiarizing the opening guitar riff from Taurus, released in 1968 by Spirit. Led Zeppelin embarked on their North American tour in 1968 and happened to occasionally be on the same bill as Spirit in 1968\/1969. In 2016 Jimmy Page testified in a jury trial that he&#8217;d only heard the track Taurus in recent years.However, that may&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[127,185,184,186,187],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random","tag-copyright","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-legal-battle","tag-spirit","tag-stairway-to-heaven"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Led Zeppelin Win &#039;Stairway to Heaven&#039; Copyright Case - RouteNote Licensing Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Led Zeppelin have effectively won their ongoing legal battle of their 1971 track Stairway to Heaven.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/licensing.routenote.com\/blog\/led-zeppelin-win-stairway-to-heaven-copyright-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Led Zeppelin Win &#039;Stairway to Heaven&#039; 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