Led Zeppelin have been dogged by accusations of stealing songs for decades. Now the case to defend the sanctity of what many believe is their greatest composition "Stairway To Heaven" is heading to trial. Spirit, the band accusing them of copyright infringement of their track "Spirit," have reportedly offered the "Celebration Day" group a chance to settle the lawsuit, but there is a catch.
According to Bloomberg, Led Zeppelin can settle the lawsuit for one single American dollar on the condition that they give Spirit's Randy California, real name Randy Wolfe, a songwriting credit on the track. The credit would amount to much more than just one dollar monetarily and musically.
By giving the Spirit guitarist the songwriting credit, the group would earn a much larger windfall from royalties and music sales as it is unlikely that "Stairway To Heaven" will all of a sudden stop selling or be used entirely by brands for a long time. Also by settling for $1, it would in effect mean they admit to stealing the track as a way of not going through a trial.
Wolfe's lawyers claim that the opening to "Stairway to Heaven" copies the same part from Spirit's song "Taurus." Zeppelin's lawyers say that the similarities come from common musical ground centuries old, which makes their claims invalid.
Earlier this week, Zeppelin had several pre-trial victories that will limit the scope of what the jury will be able to hear from the plaintiffs. U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner excluded many of the "Taurus" recordings that the plaintiffs wanted to play for the court and limited it to just the song that registered with the Copyright Office in 1967. As a result, he excluded all musicology expert testimony based on those unregistered sound recordings.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge also barred any testimony about Led Zeppelin's history of plagiarism or their use of drugs and alcohol.
