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Appeal Filed In Zeppelin Case
Lawyers have appealed a jury decision that cleared Led Zeppelin of accusations it lifted a riff from an obscure 1960s instrumental for the intro to its classic rock anthem “Stairway to Heaven.”
Photo: Amy Sancetta/AP, file
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page reunite to perform for the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
At attorney for the trust of the late Randy Wolfe filed a notice of appeal last week in Los Angeles federal court.
The trust for Wolfe, better known as Randy California, failed to convince a jury last month that the British band swiped a passage to “Stairway” from a short work he recorded with his band Spirit in 1968.
The filing does not provide legal arguments for why the case should be reconsidered.
Trust attorneys complained after the verdict that the judge did not allow jurors to hear the recording of Spirit’s “Taurus.”
Instead, jurors had to rely on renditions from the sheet music because that is the copyright-protected work, though it differs from the band’s recording.
Attorneys for Led Zeppelin and the other defendants, including their record label, are seeking close to $800,000 in legal and other fees from the trust because it failed to win.
A hearing on that matter is scheduled Aug. 8