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Led Zeppelin Off the Hook in Plagiarism Case

 Led Zeppelin Off the Hook in Plagiarism Case   Legendary rock bank Led Zeppelin did not plagiarize one of its most famous songs, “Stairway to Heaven,” a federal jury in Los Angeles says. The British group was accused of stealing the introduction to the 8-minute classic from a song called “Taurus” from an American band called Spirit. “Stairway to Heaven” was released in 1971, but Michael Skidmore, a trustee for Spirit’s late guitarist, Randy Wolfe, says Wolfe should be given credit for the song. The plaintiffs also sought $40 million in damages. However on Thursday, the eight-person jury said unanimously that even if Led Zeppelin had access to  “Taurus,” the songs were not extrinsically similar. In fact, music experts testified that both songs used a musical convention called a descending chromatic four-chord progression, also seen in music by The Beatles, among many others. Led Zeppelin's founders, guitarist Jimmy Page and leader singer Robert Plant, claim they wrote the song in