Story. This tune has made something like $500+m since 1971 which is a massive sum so I would imagine royalties will be quite substantial also. Why it has taken so long for the action to be taken escapes me? ? But I would suggest that money/greed will be the motive. Anyway a fine tune, and takes me back to when I was in my late teens.
While there are certainly similarities, specifically the picking pieces, I would call it "inspired by" rather than a "ripoff". There are also vast differences.
The picking pieces make up pretty much 80-90% of the song that was copied, so to transfer that over to the other one is hardly 'inspired by', it's plagiarism for sure. Ofcourse, there are vast differences in Stairway to heaven that make it stand out as it's own song, but using the core of another song to act as the backbone is very naughty. Then again, groups like One Direction should be sued out of existence for the amount of copying they do....
Wow. It's not exactly subtle is it. Whether it's actually copyright infringement or not I'm surprised it hasn't been cleared up one way or another by now.
Sour grapes. One is arguably the most successful rock track of all time, the other is essentially unknown to 99% of people who are interested. I wouldn't have bought it. As for plagiarism, it's everywhere if you go looking hard enough. Should have tried harder at the time.
