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Led Zep Accused of stealing Stairway to Heaven Opening

I dunno, I always have trouble with these things. I still can't believe Men at Work got fucked over because Down Under sounded like Kookabura too much.

You kidding me?

There are a limited amount of chords and notes, to me if its not blatant and obvious then people should be able to slide. All that being said, seems like LZ could have settled this one.
 
Go said:
I dunno, I always have trouble with these things. I still can't believe Men at Work got fucked over because Down Under sounded like Kookabura too much.

You kidding me?

There are a limited amount of chords and notes, to me if its not blatant and obvious then people should be able to slide. All that being said, seems like LZ could have settled this one.
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Ya think?
 
Glad to see "Spirit" finally woke up from their 40+ year drug haze.
 
Meh. The first five chords are similar, but I'm kind of with Go on this one

That said, the Beatles should sue Sublime for What I Got/Lady Madonna
 
If the Spirit guy died in 1997, who is bringing about this lawsuit? His heirs? Seems like a money grab.
 
ITK said:
If the Spirit guy died in 1997, who is bringing about this lawsuit? His heirs? Seems like a money grab.
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"Malofiy represents a songwriting trust for the late Randy California, guitarist for the band Spirit."
 
Randy's brother, Robert, once owned a small paper conglomerate on the East Coast.
 
Go said:
I dunno, I always have trouble with these things. I still can't believe Men at Work got fucked over because Down Under sounded like Kookabura too much.

You kidding me?

There are a limited amount of chords and notes, to me if its not blatant and obvious then people should be able to slide. All that being said, seems like LZ could have settled this one.
Click to expand...

Down Under didn't sound like Kookabura, it was Kookabura.

Edited to add
Hasn't Page been accused of ripping people off before?
 
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Wow, Spirit....haven't thought of them in prob 20 years. I can rememebr putting the Pioneer speakers in our dorm room in Efird and blasting "Nature's Way" onto the quad from our Marantz tuner while slinging a frisbee and swirling Schlitz and Old Mil tallboys from College Beverage (in our cutoff jean shorts of course)
 
Perhaps just a hair late for an injunction, what with that pesky irreparable harm requirement and all. . .
 
This is BS (and I'm glad - if this was an Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby situation, my entire childhood would be tainted). As Go said, there's a limited number of chords and notes. This isn't even close to exact. When you write a song, you shouldn't own the rights to anything that sounds vaguely similar.
 
So basically many of Zeppelins biggest songs were ripped off from others. That's really creative.
 
RJKarl said:
So basically many of Zeppelins biggest songs were ripped off from others. That's really creative.
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Oh God, Please NO! Don't!

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Didn't they take a lot of their stuff from underexposed black bluesmen?
 
Freakindeacon33 said:
This is BS (and I'm glad - if this was an Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby situation, my entire childhood would be tainted). As Go said, there's a limited number of chords and notes. This isn't even close to exact. When you write a song, you shouldn't own the rights to anything that sounds vaguely similar.
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I think there are times when it's legit to sue, but it gets awfully muddy real quick. Here's an example. This is the original version of "When the Levee Breaks."




Now here is Zep's version:



I've always thought U2's Bullet the Blue Sky ripped off this song. Of course, Zep couldn't sue, it's not their original song, but the sound they created to cover the song sounds very similar to the u2 song.

 
If this is the criteria for lawsuits, then Iggy Pop will be suing Jet for "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" next. And have a much better case.
 
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