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The Trump administration took part in the legal battle around "Stairway to Heaven" this week, as the Justice Department lined up with Led Zeppelin as part of their copyright dispute with the estate from the late guitarist Randy (California) Wolfe.
Although the appeal of the lawsuit against Led Zeppelin is still pending, the Justice Department this week filed an amicus in support of a judge's earlier ruling that copyright in earlier musical compositions to 1972 were protected only by partitions; in 1972, Congress amended the law to protect sound recordings, reports NBC News.
"Taurus", Spirit's song that Led Zeppelin allegedly raped for "Stairway to Heaven" was written in 1967, making it applicable to the previous federal law.
The Department of Justice added that, despite the similarities between the two tracks, the disputed passages had to be almost identical under the previous federal statute; as they are not, the Department of Justice argued that Led Zeppelin was right to prevail in the previous lawsuit under the Copyright Act prior to 1972.
"There should be no serious dispute that the passages from Stairway to Heaven and Taurus that are involved here are not nearly identical. At a minimum, the notes and rhythm are not all, or even mostly identical, "wrote the government in the amicus.
Despite the position of the Department of Justice, in response to an appeal from the Wolfe estate, the three-judge court of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial Friday, continuing the legal battle of five years. The Court of Appeal found that the previous judge erred by following the jury's instructions and by refusing to allow the estate team Wolfe to play "Taurus" in the testimony of Jimmy Plant, Variety reports.
"Without selection and arrangement instructions, the jury's instructions seriously undermined [the Wolfe trustee’s] argument in favor of extrinsic similarity, which is exactly what the jury found insufficient, "wrote Judge Richard A. Paez in his appeal appeal on Friday. The case will be referred to a court of appeal in September.
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