Led Zeppelin did not lift a guitar riff used in its signature song "Stairway to Heaven" from the U.S. group Spirit, a Los Angeles jury found on Thursday, saying there were substantial differences between the two.
The jury's decision, reached on its second day of deliberations, followed a week-long trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that had called into question the originality of the classic 1971 song of Led Zeppelin, one of the top-selling rock acts of all time.
The jury found that Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had access to Spirit's 1967 song "Taurus" but that the riff they were accused of taking was not intrinsically similar to the opening chords of "Stairway."
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