Over the summer, the plagiarism controversy behind Led Zeppelin's infamous track "Stairway to Heaven" resurfaced in the form of a lawsuit by representatives of deceased songwriter Randy Craig Wolfe, who claim the band lifted parts of the famous song.
Members of Led Zeppelin have filed a motion to dismiss the suit, The Hollywood Reporter points out, because of where the lawsuit originated: Pennsylvania. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page are from England while Wolfe is from California. "The individual defendants are British citizens residing in England, own no property in Pennsylvania and have no contacts with Pennsylvania, let alone ties sufficient to render them essentially at home here," their complaint states. "Under established case law, no good faith basis exists to argue the Court has general jurisdiction over them."
According to THR, Wolfe's heir, Michael Skidmore is allowed to file the lawsuit in the Keystone State if he thinks there's "an intentional tort, the plaintiff felt the brunt of the harm there, and the defendants aimed their conduct there." It's unclear why Skidmore chose Pennsylvania, but if the case does proceed, representatives for Led Zeppelin are at least asking that the suit be tried in California because people familiar with Wolfe's career live there.
Wolfe played in the band Spirit and claimed before his death in 1997 that the beginning of 1971's "Stairway" was taken from his band's 1968 song "Taurus." As rock 'n' roll lore has it, Page wrote the Zeppelin classic while in a remote cabin in Wales. To make matters more interesting, Spirit reportedly opened for Zeppelin in the 60s and "Taurus" was part of those setlists.
