Stairway vs Taurus. Led Zep should pay something in the Stairway lawsuit.

Excellent response and much appreciated to get such a thoughtful response by a fellow musician. But I still disagree with the conclusion. I can't dispute any of the logic of your argument and frankly agree with almost all of it. But I will explain why I don't agree with the conclusion. First of all, I believe that it is in the public interest for there to be copyright protection for songwriters. Due to technology changes in music distribution, revenues from songwriting have declined dramatically. I think that while songwriters pursue songwriting for the love of music, financial incentives are a big factor. Today we have almost infinite multi-tracking capability and yet the quality of new songs today seems to pale in comparison to earlier generations. Just think that Sgt. Pepper was made on a four track. They payoff to develop the craft of songwriting today isn't there. In the past, there was a standard for when you take someone's material. It seems the standard was applied inconsistently in court. John Lennon was successfully sued by the owners of the Chuck Berry song "You Can't Catch Me" for making what was basically a small reference to that song in "Come Together" - two completely different songs. Of note is that Chuck Berry didn't want to sue, but the end result was a settlement with Lennon recording other old songs owned by them - Rock nRoll. So everybody won. Randy California clearly felt they took from him. Here is a quote from Randy "Well, if you listen to the two songs, you can make your own judgment. It"s an exact" I"d say it was a rip-off. And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said, "Thank you," never said, "Can we pay you some money for it?" It"s kind of a sore point with me. Maybe some day their conscience will make them do something about it. I don"t know. There are funny business dealings between record companies, managers, publishers, and artists. But when artists do it to other artists, there"s no excuse for that. I"m mad! " Stairway and Taurus are completely different songs. But I think there is no question that Page "borrowed" the main riff and adapted it. He was very skilled and knowledgeable. Now you can argue that songwriting is a craft of basically borrowing and adapting other ideas into a new context. So where do you draw the line. I would have preferred Page being honest ans saying that he might have heard it. It just seems to obvious. I think they could settled out of court and given California a partial credit and some small money. Clearly I am in the minority in this opinion and I love Zep (first concert I every saw right before Bohnam died). I am amazed at how much they have borrowed and even stolen. But when i listen to what they took from, it all seems to have a different feel and be incredible to enjoy. Also, while they took and borrowed from blues artists, apparently blues artist had a habit of doing this to each other. I guess the attitude was if it becomes big then they can sue and we deal with it then. Moby Dick and I feel fine both borrowed from Bobby Parker's Watch Your Step. I feel bad that Parker never got to make anything off that. But Lennon and Page were aware of the similarities and made sure to change it enough to not have to pay. They each referred to Watch Your Step as their respective inspiration. I think the attitude is take but change enough so you don't get caught. For example here is a quote from Lennon on Harrison taking My Sweet Lord from He's So Fine: "Well, he walked right into it. He knew what he was doing. He must have known, you know. He's smarter than that. It's irrelevant, actually... only on a monetary level does it matter. He could have changed a couple of bars in that song and nobody could ever have touched him, but he just let it go and paid the price. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off." I think Page heard Taurus and adapted it into the intro to Stairway. I just wish that the jury could have considered that. Furthermore, I read the jury didn't even get to hear the two passages to compare. I am not at all saying California deserves credit for Stairway. But i think a partial credit would be appropriate. Frankly, I think this case is very much in the gray area and I wanted to take the harder to defend side to stimulate debate on the issue as I think copyright issues for artist today and going forward are going to be big challenges. But my conclusion is that if Page won in court, he didn't win fairly. I think he heard the song and modified it. I think he got away with it. As a footnote, I am surprised that I'm Too Sexy was never sued by the estate of Hendrix for taking the melody of Third Stone from the Sun. Thanks again for your thoughtful counter. I still respectfully disagree.