{"id":86,"date":"2015-06-01T22:29:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T22:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/?page_id=86"},"modified":"2024-01-05T14:10:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T14:10:27","slug":"copyright","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/revolutionsincommunication.com\/law\/copyright\/","title":{"rendered":"11.1 Copyright"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Plant

Led Zepplin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page performing in Chicago on 10 April 1977, during Led Zeppelin’s last North American tour.\u00a0
Photo by Jim Summaria<\/a>, Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\r\n

High profile rock bands and their\u00a0 infringement lawsuits<\/strong> are probably the first thing that comes to mind when most people think about copyright law, and few are as high profile as the Skidmore v Led Zepplin case decided by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> on\u00a0 March 9, 2020.\u00a0 The suit was filed in 2014 by Michael Skidmore on behalf of musicians from a band called Spirit. Skidmore said their 1968 song\u00a0 “Taurus” in 1968 was copied by Led Zepplin in the 1971 song “Stairway to Heaven.”\u00a0 (A comparison of the two songs is available here\u00a0<\/a> and also here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0also here.)<\/a><\/p>\r\n

There are\u00a0 similarities between the two songs, and a jury found for Spirit in 2016. But the decision was reversed by an appeals court in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Similarly contentious music infringement suits have been filed over the Happy Birthday song, We Shall Overcome, My Sweet Lord by George Harrison, \u00a0Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give it Up among many others.\u00a0 George Washington University has a database of music copyright lawsuits.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n

———-\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Unit 11 – Intellectual property overview\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n

11.1 – overview (this page)\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
Also see \u00a0Lecture notes \/ Slides\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

11.2 – copyright basics and history<\/strong><\/p>\r\n