A federal appeals court decided unanimously Friday to overturn a jury's decision that Led Zeppelin did not copy another band in making the iconic hit "Stairway to Heaven."
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decided a new trial was needed because the judge in the case had given erroneous and prejudicial instructions to the jury.
The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit that charged Led Zeppelin stole portions of "Stairway to Heaven" from a song called "Taurus," which was written by Randy Wolfe of the Los Angeles-based band Spirit.
A trustee of Wolfe's estate sued for copyright infringement, charging that the opening notes of "Stairway to Heaven" were substantially similar to those in "Taurus."
After a five-day federal trial in Los Angeles in 2016, a jury found no copyright infringement.
The 9th Circuit said the trial judge should have told the jury that the selection and arrangement of some musical elements can violate copyright law.
The court said the judge also erred by telling the jury that common musical elements, such as descending chromatic scales, arpeggios or short sequences of three notes, were not protected by copyright. In fact, a limited number of notes can be protected, the court said.
Those failures, in addition to other instructions, warrant a new trial, the 9th Circuit decided. The panel also said the district court should have allowed a sound recording of "Taurus" to be played during the trial.
