Despite a federal jury unanimously finding Led Zeppelin in the clear for their “Stairway to Heaven” copyright-infringement trial last year, it looks like the case will Ramble On for a little bit longer.
Per , a 90-page brief has been filed by Francis Malofiy — the attorney who represents Michael Skidmore, the trustee of Spirit guitarist Randy California’s estate — which argues it’s “quite clear” that Zepp’s Jimmy Page and Robert Plant relied heavily on Spirit’s song “Taurus” while crafting the intro to “Stairway to Heaven.” (“Taurus” was released in 1969, while “Stairway” came out in 1971.)
“The most important of these errors was that the trial court refused to let the jury hear the full and complete composition of ‘Taurus,’ embodied in the sound recordings that Jimmy Page possessed,” Malifiy wrote, “instead limiting the comparison to an outline of the ‘Taurus’ composition in the deposit copy lead sheet.” Malifiy also claims that the reason the jury didn’t rule in his favor initially was due to “evidentiary errors and erroneous instructions” by the original trial judge.
The trial’s jury concluded last June that, in spite of both songs sharing similar descending chord progression, they were not “substantially similar” enough to rule in Malifiy’s favor. As a result, he’s requesting a reversal of the previous verdict and a retrial.
Other complaints pertaining to the initial trial include “Limiting Plaintiff’s Trial Time to 10 Hours Violated Due Process and was Not Even Close to An Adequate Amount of Time to Try this Case” as well as “The Court Seriously Erred when Defining Originality.”
In July, after Page and Robert Plant were victorious in the copyright infringement case, Page , “A few weeks have passed since the judgement of the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ case in Los Angeles, with the jury reaching a unanimous decision in a remarkably short time. Throughout the lengthy journey to that verdict, and even more recently, I have received and been aware of the overwhelming wave of support, encouragement and congratulations that [have] been deeply moving. I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank all those who contributed such a positive energy to me.”