New York - Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" copyright
battle will get a rare encore in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
after the court muted an earlier ruling calling for a new trial.
In the surprise decision Monday, the venerable court vacated a
September ruling from one of its three-judge panels and said the
high-profile case will now go before 11 of its judges to determine
what should happen next.
The case centers on claims Zeppelin's 1971 megahit "Stairway to
Heaven" stole elements from the 1966 song "Taurus" by late Los
Angeles guitar prodigy Randy Wolfe.
Both sides had asked for the larger, so-called "en banc" review of
different aspects of the complex September ruling from the
three-judge panel.
Led Zeppelin's lawyers requested it by saying the 2016 verdict that
found no wrongdoing or infringement on the part of the British band
should stand.
Lawyers for Wolfe's estate, meanwhile, said the September ruling
erred in its finding that the "deposit copy" sheet music for
"Taurus," as opposed to sound recordings of the song from Wolfe's
band Spirit, represented the scope of what could be protected by
copyright.
In its ruling, the three-judge panel said the "district court
correctly ruled that sound recordings of 'Taurus' as performed by
Spirit could not be used to prove substantial similarity." But in
somewhat of a split decision, it said the judge was wrong to block
recordings of "Taurus" for the purpose of demonstrating Led Zeppelin
had "access" to the song.
Francis Malofiy and AJ Fluehr, the lawyers for Wolfe's estate, said
Monday they were "gratified" by the 9th Circuit's decision, saying it
proved "an en banc rehearing of the deposit copy issue is
appropriate."
"The issue has national implications for artist rights and the prior
ruling was incorrect," they said in a statement to the New York Daily
News. "This is a big step for the creatives against the industry."
They claimed the re-hearing will be limited to their petition, but
the court's ruling was not specific in that regard, instead stating
that the review related to "these cases" and that the three-judge
ruling from September "shall not be cited as precedent by or to any
court of the 9th Circuit."
Lawyers for Led Zeppelin did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Michael Skidmore, the trustee of Wolfe's estate, filed the underlying
lawsuit in 2014, more than a decade after Wolfe died in a tragic 1997
drowning accident while saving his son from a riptide in Hawaii.
Plant and Page both testified at the six-day trial in 2016 and were
adamant they didn't steal their opening guitar riff from Wolfe's
song.
"We are grateful for the jury's conscientious service and pleased
that it has ruled in our favor, putting to rest questions about the
origins of 'Stairway to Heaven' and confirming what we have known for
45 years," Page and Plant said in a joint statement after the
verdict.
"We appreciate our fans' support, and look forward to putting this
legal matter behind us," they said.
Speaking after the verdict, Wolfe's sisters blasted the trial judge
for the decision that blocked jurors from listening to an actual
recording of Wolfe playing his composition on his guitar.
Jurors were asked to compare only in-court performances from
musicians hired on both sides of the case, with the plaintiff's
guitar version predictably sounding more similar to "Stairway" than
the defense rendition played on a piano.
"The jury didn't get to compare apples to apples because they never
got to hear Taurus. There's no way they could make a ruling in our
favor with what they had to listen to," sister Marla Randall
previously told the Daily News.
Plant, 70, and Page, 75, both testified at the trial and described
for jurors their recollection of how they wrote their epic
eight-minute song.
Plant said the song was composed in a dilapidated manor in rural
Hampshire, England, during brainstorming sessions with Page on
guitar.
He recalled sitting with Page by a fire and "ruminating" about music
as they toyed with "lots of pieces randomly" and "developed new
stuff."
Wolfe, meanwhile, was a guitar prodigy who worked with Jimi Hendrix
and was nicknamed Randy California by the Rock and Roll Hall of
Famer.
Wolfe's sisters said their brother considered suing before his death
but didn't have the money to pursue a claim and heard from an
attorney that the statute of limitations had passed.
"All we and our brother Randy ever wanted was acknowledgement that he
was the true author of the intro to 'Stairway to Heaven,'" sister
Janet Wolfe said after the verdict.
Led Zeppelin's victory in 2016 came after a different Los Angeles
jury decided Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams infringed on Marvin
Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" with their hit song "Blurred Lines."
Gaye's family was awarded 7.4 million dollars, a figure that a judge
later reduced to 5.3 million dollars.