The legendary band Led Zeppelin has won a dispute in which it was accused of infringing the copyright of the song “Stairway to Heaven”. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a jury ruling that the song “Stairway to Heaven” does not infringe the copyright of Spirit’s 1968 song “Taurus.”
The first lawsuit was filed in 2014. It claimed that the guitar intro to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ infringed copyright on the musical component of ‘Taurus’.
During the trial, the plaintiff’s representative asked to reproduce the sound recordings of the songs “Stairway to Heaven” and “Taurus”, as he argued that the copyright protection of the song “Taurus” should include not only the sheet music, but also the song as it was recorded However, the judge refused to grant this request.
The fact is that the copyright on “Taurus” is protected under the Copyright Act of 1909, which applies to sheet music but not to sound recordings. Sound recordings were not protected until 1972. The song “Taurus” was copyrighted in 1967, and the copy used for the registration was a single page of sheet music.
The Copyright Act of 1976 fundamentally changed the requirements for copyright protection, allowing the public distribution of sound recordings to be treated as a musical work. This allowed artists to submit the sound recording directly as a deposit copy. However, this became possible only after the entry into force of the Act in 1978.
In his appeal, the plaintiff’s representative argued that the judge erred by failing to instruct the jury on the use of the inverse ratio rule. The inverse ratio rule is used when one party can prove that the infringing party had a high degree of access to the plaintiff’s work. If a high degree of access is determined, a lower standard of proof is used to determine the similarity of the songs. The inverse ratio rule is a controversial rule that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has used in copyright cases since 1977.
The lawsuit alleged that members of Led Zeppelin had access to Spirit’s songs during their tour together in the late 1960s. However, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist claims he never saw Spirit perform.
Because works are now readily available on the Internet, the court noted that the concept of “access” is becoming increasingly blurred in today’s digital world.
In addition to affirming the trial judge’s decision not to instruct the jury on the use of the inverse ratio rule, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also struck down the rule in its entirety because it is not part of copyright law, illogical, and creates uncertainty for both judges , as well as for the parties.
The decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was not only a victory for Led Zeppelin, but quite possibly a victory for the music industry as a whole.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/