Arguably one of the most famous rock songs is reappearing in the United States Supreme Court in front of 11 Judges this September. After being held by the jury that these two songs were not sufficiently similar to constitute copyright infringement the judgement of the case was appealed by the trustee of Randy Wolfe’s estate (Randy being the lead songwriter for Spirit). The Trustee believed that the case was briefed poorly by the Judge and that the Jury wasn’t given enough detail of American copyright law. Where the case was looked over by the 9th Circuit of Appeal where they held that the judge gave erroneous and prejudicial instructions to the jury. This has meant that the case needs to go through a new trial.
From the moment of creation, a song already has copyright protection, but this protection is only really recognised when it is registered with the US Copyright Office as a recording or a piece of sheet music. As a result of this protection artists can make claims for infringement of their copyrighted work. If two songs have a section and it is held they are in fact similar then it will be the earlier-filed version that would have protection. As ‘Taurus’ was made is 1967 and ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was made in 1971 it would be the Spirit song ‘Taurus’ which would hold copyright under the intro riff which is the reason why this case is in dispute.
The Similarities between ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and ‘Taurus’ are found within the opening section of the songs as a result of the similarities in the descending chord progression that they both have and they make use of similar chords in this style. If held in favour of Spirit it could lead to more unnecessary litigation between songs with similarities and would see a struggle in artists creativity when releasing songs as they wouldn’t be able to use similar chord progressions and alter a song completely without a fear of litigation giving a wide impact on the whole music industry.
As a result, courts are looking eager to award copyright to the earlier song when only a small section is similar which is why many artists want the previous decision in favour of Led Zeppelin to be upheld. 123 artists have filed Amicus briefs which are legal documents by people who are not involved within the lawsuit but have an interest in the subject matter. This is because it will harm the creativity within the music industry and will result in unnecessary litigation.
Also, dependent on this case is the decision of the ‘let’s get it on’ and ‘thinking out loud’ battle going on between Ed Sheeran and Marvin Gaye where the Judge is waiting on the decision of the Led Zeppelin case before delivering his verdict to see if the mood of the song can be an infringement.
In September we will find out if there will be a shakeup in the music world and copyright.
By Owen White Third Year Law Student at Solent University
