The ‘Stairway To Heaven’ copyright case is headed to a federal appeals court

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The legal fight over “Stairway To Heaven” is heading to a federal appeals court after the lawyer for the plaintiff, Francis Malofiy, argued that the June 2016 trial failed to allow him to include the recorded version of “Taurus,” the song he claimed was the inspiration for the introduction to “Stairway To Heaven.”

Led Zeppelin won the jury trial over the origins of the introduction to arguably their most famous song in June when a jury found that the song simply wasn’t similar enough to the Spirit song “Taurus.” Both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant testified in court over the origins of their song, and the jury eventually returned a verdict in their favour.

But Malofiy indicated after the trial that he intended to appeal the verdict, and now The Hollywood Reporter says that Malofiy’s appeal is headed to the Ninth Circuit federal appeals court.

Malofiy’s argument (which you can read in full below) claims that Judge Klausner made an error in not allowing the jury to hear the original recorded version of “Taurus.” Instead, Malofiy claims that the jury heard “an inaccurate version of ‘Taurus’ more dissimilar to ‘Stairway to Heaven’.”

Malofiy is also claiming that he was not given enough time to present his case in court. Judge Klausner gave each side 10 hours in court, but Malofiy claims that wasn’t enough time to deal with the case.

Another claim Malofiy makes in his brief is that the testimony of one of Led Zeppelin’s expert witnesses, Lawrence Ferrara, was wrongfully included because Ferrara had previously analysed both “Stairway To Heaven” and “Taurus” for Led Zeppelin’s publishing company.

Click here to view our full collection of court documents from the “Stairway To Heaven” copyright case.

You can read the full brief below:

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