LED ZEPPELIN WINS COPYRIGHT BATTLE OVER ‘STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN’

Led Zeppelin was the victor in the final step of its “Stairway to Heaven” copyright battle, Nancy Dillon reported for the New York Daily News.

The US Supreme Court said in a short caption on its website that it “denied” a request by the estate of guitar prodigy Randy Wolfe to hear a last-ditch appeal in the long-running case. The rejection means a lower court verdict that found Led Zeppelin didn’t infringe on Wolfe’s work will stand.

Wolfe’s estate filed the underlying lawsuit more than five years ago, claiming the instantly recognizable opening of Led Zeppelin’s signature song “Stairway to Heaven” is nearly identical to a guitar riff played by Wolfe in “Taurus,” a copyright-protected song he wrote for his 1960s California band Spirit.

A federal court jury in Los Angeles ultimately sided with the iconic British band after superstar singer Robert Plant, 72, and guitarist Jimmy Page, 76, testified at trial. Wolfe, also known as Randy California, died in 1997 in a tragic drowning while saving his son from a riptide in Hawaii. His sisters supported the lawsuit brought by trustee Michael Skidmore. Speaking to the Daily News after the 2016 jury verdict, one sister blasted the court’s ruling that barred jurors from hearing Wolfe’s personal recording of his guitar composition. The jury only heard live musicians playing from sheet music in court.