A trial is needed to decide if Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven copies its opening notes from a song performed by the rock band Spirit, a judge has ruled.
US District Judge R Gary Klausner ruled that lawyers for the trustee of late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe had shown enough evidence to support a case that Stairway To Heaven copies music from his song Taurus.
Taurus was written by Wolfe - who used the stage name Randy California - in either 1966 or 1967, years before Led Zeppelin released Stairway To Heaven in 1971.
Read more: Previously unheard Led Zeppelin track to be released
The judge wrote that while the songs have some differences, lawyers for Wolfe's trustee may be able to prove they are substantially similar.
Led Zeppelin and Spirit performed at some concerts and festivals around the same time, but not on the same stage.
Read more: Flying high with Led Zeppelin
Judge Klausner wrote that the evidence presented so far represented a circumstantial case that Led Zeppelin may have heard Taurus performed before Stairway To Heaven was created.
Experts hired by Led Zeppelin band contend both Stairway To Heaven and Taurus include notes that have been used in music for centuries.
Francis Alexander Malofiy, lawyer for Wolfe's trustee Michael Skidmore, praised the ruling.
He said while many copyright cases are an uphill battle, the judge's ruling brings his client one step closer to getting Wolfe credit for helping create one of the most recognisable song introductions in rock history.
Mr Skidmore was able to overcome statute-of-limitations hurdles to sue over Stairway To Heaven because the song was remastered and re-released in 2014.
A jury trial is scheduled for May 10 in Los Angeles.
The judge's ruling removed Zeppelin band member John Paul Jones from the case. Bandmates Robert Plant and Jimmy Page remain as defendants.
A trial would represent the third time in little over a year that a Los Angeles jury has heard a copyright-infringement case involving a hit song.
In March last year, a jury found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had copied a Marvin Gaye song to create their 2013 hit Blurred Lines, and awarded Gaye's children 7.4 million dollars (£5.2 million). A judge reduced the award, and the verdict is under appeal.
Later in the year, another jury was empanelled to decide whether the Jay-Z hit Big Pimpin' copied the work of an Egyptian composer, but a judge ruled in the rapper's favour before deliberations began.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article