Led Zeppelin Win in ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Trial
In 1996, the year before his death, Wolfe told an interviewer he felt “Stairway” was a “ripoff” of “Taurus.” Malofiy used the following statement in the complaint: “The guys made millions of bucks on it and never said, ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?'” Wolfe said. “It’s kind of a sore point with me. Maybe someday their conscience will make them do something about it. I don’t know. There are funny business dealings between record companies, managers, publishers and artists. But when artists do it to other artists, there’s no excuse for that. I’m mad!”
Wolfe drowned in 1997 while rescuing his son from a rip current in Hawaii, according to Bloomberg. His mother established the trust in his name, which purchases musical instruments for public schools. After she died in 2009, she passed it along to the suit’s plaintiff, Michael Skidmore, who had assisted her in managing the trust. After teaming with Malofiy, he sued for copyright infringement in various forms and for “falsification of rock & roll history” (Wolfe’s alleged right of attribution). He sought the defendants’ profits, various forms of damages (including “exemplary damages to set an example for others”) and an injunction on selling the recording and attorney’s fees, among other “claims for relief.”
Malofiy told Bloomberg he felt the lawsuit was worth around $40 million.
“This is ridiculous,” Jimmy Page said of the lawsuit that month. “I have no further comment on the subject.”
Led Zeppelin would later allege that the Trust did not even own the copyright to the song. They claimed that Wolfe’s son, whom he saved at the time of his death, did, though the judge in the trial nullified that argument.
The suit quickly became a cause célèbre in the music industry, as it is the most high-profile copyright case to follow the estate of Marvin Gaye’s victory over Robin Thicke in the “Blurred Lines” lawsuit last year. In that case, Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay $7.4 million (later reduced to $5.3 million) to the Gayes after a jury ruled that the song infringed on the vibe of Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” Lawyer Donald S. Passman told The New York Times that the Gaye ruling was “aberrational” and would not have any long-term effects.
It was determined in April of this year that the case would go to trial. Led Zeppelin’s lawyer had asked U.S. District Court Judge Gary Klausner to rule in their favor without a trial in February, but the judge decided the songs were similar enough to warrant one. Although he wrote that Malofiy had not convinced him of Led Zeppelin’s alleged infringement, the judge said that the “similarities [between the songs] transcend this core structure” and that what would remain is a “subjective assessment of the ‘concept and feel’ of two works.”
What would occur over the coming months would become an epic story all its own.