Led Zeppelin were taken to court. Why? Well, the plaintiff accused them of using a melody from an instrumental called ‘Taurus’ in introduction to their song ‘Stairway to Heaven’. ‘Taurus’ was written by the late Randy Wolfe (aka Randy California) when he was a member of the band Spirit.
Zep won the case. The court ruled that the tunes were not similar enough to warrant a copyright infringement. If you listen to the two back to back you can hear some similarities, especially as they are both played on guitar with a similar tone.
So what can we learn from this?
There was a written transcription of ‘Taurus’ and this was the document the court had to use for comparison. They were not permitted to hear the recorded version of the song since this was not part of the original sheet music.
https://legalclarity.org/skidmore-v-led-zeppelin-a-landmark-copyright-law-case/Here is the summary of the main points of the trial
So be careful what you copy. If the court were to consider the recorded version of ‘Taurus’ they may have come to a different decision.
The point here is that the more successful a song becomes the more money it earns. This increases the likelihood that someone somewhere will try to grab a piece of it!