Led Zeppelin ‘Stairway’ Trial Goes to Jury as Both Sides Plead Case
The copyright infringement lawsuit against Led Zeppelin over the songwriting credits and profits of its classic “Stairway to Heaven” has now gone to the jury, which began deliberations Wednesday morning.
In the sixth day of the case – “Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin et al” (the “et al” referring to corporate defendants Atlantic Records, Rhino Records and Warner/Chappell Music) – both sides made final arguments in Court 850 of Los Angeles’ Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse. The presiding judge, Gary Klausner, allotted counsel representing the plaintiffs (the trust of Randy “California” Wolfe, whose composition “Taurus” for the band Spirit they allege has been plagiarized) and Zeppelin’s defense team 45 minutes each to convince the eight-person jury of their arguments.
The plaintiff’s controversial attorney, Francis Malofiy, began the proceedings, giving his best performance to date in the trial – concisely summing up the various themes he’d presented with clarity and force and largely never veering out of control. (Judge Klausner has repeatedly sustained objections over procedure against Malofiy throughout the trial.) “This case is about one thing: credit,” Malofiy began, noting his plaintiff requested songwriting credit for Wolfe and one-third of royalties of “Stairway.” “This case is about copying. Give. Credit. Where. Credit. Is. Due.”
Malofiy reiterated testimony from the plaintiff’s expert witnesses that both “Taurus” (an instrumental) and “Stairway” share “substantial similarity” in their use of a descending chromatic scale “in a unique and original way … That is memorable and unique.” He attacked Jimmy Page and Robert Plant as having a “selective memory” on the stand, asking if their “memory is better now or in 1969 or 1970” (at which time the Zep members gave interviews that seemed to contradict their testimony about their knowledge and appreciation of Spirit’s material, as well as having seen the band live).
Those interviews – both in their raw audio form and in print – alongside Zeppelin having covered Spirit’s song “Fresh-Garbage,” served as a smoking gun in the plaintiffs’ eyes that proved the band had “access” to Spirit recordings. Malofiy also cited the fact that Page owned five Spirit albums, including its 1968 self-titled debut that included “Taurus,” and that Page’s testimony contradicting ancient Zeppelin folklore that the intro of “Stairway” was written at the Welsh cottage Bron-Yr-Aur was a “complete rewriting of history.”
Malofiy also seemed to rub in the defense’s face that they were unable to call an expert witness to assess damages: He told the jury it had wide latitude to assess damages as “somewhere in the middle” of $10 million alleged gross profits, adjusting for the fact that “Stairway” is one of Zeppelin’s most popular songs in its catalog.