Led Zeppelin “Stairway to Heaven”

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.