Philadelphia attorney Francis Malofiy, sued the band Led Zeppelin over the authorship of “Stairway to Heaven.”
“Stairway to Heaven” is arguably the most famous song in all of rock-and-roll. Since its release in 1971, it has netted around $500 million in sales and royalties.
The suit alleges that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, (Zeppelin’s songwriters) stole the first two minutes of “Stairway” from a song called “Tauras.” “Tauras” was a song from the 1960s band Spirit.
Malofiy represented the estate of Randy “California” Wolfe, now deceased, was a member of Spirit who wrote “Tauras.”
The 2016 trial based on copyright infringement ended in a verdict for Zeppelin. Now, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Malofiy’s appeal. of the 2016 verdict and ordered a new trial. The grounds for the new trial was “abuse of discretion”, when the judge refused to allow Malofiy to play a recording of the song for the jury. The jury was only allowed to hear an acoustic guitar version played from sheet music.