Legendary guitarist Jimmy Web page of Led Zeppelin fame has been sued in a US court docket by a songwriter who alleges Web page violated the copyright on the Nineteen Sixties hit Dazed and Confused.
Jake Holmes, a US-based singer-songwriter and jingle author, filed the lawsuit in a federal court docket in California on Monday (Could 5), accusing Web page of copyright infringement and breach of contract in connection to the biopic Turning into Led Zeppelin, which was launched earlier this yr, in addition to various recordings by The Yardbirds, Web page’s band earlier than Led Zeppelin.
Holmes wrote Dazed and Confused in 1967 and recorded it for his album “The Above Floor Sound” of Jake Holmes.
The next yr, Web page’s band, The Yardbirds, publicly carried out Dazed and Confused, and the yr after that, Web page established a brand new band, Led Zeppelin.
Dazed and Confused, with new lyrics, appeared on Led Zeppelin’s untitled debut album, with Web page credited as songwriter.
In 2010, Holmes took Web page to court docket for copyright infringement over the track, and the matter was settled out of court docket in 2011.
In accordance with Holmes’ new grievance, below the 2011 settlement settlement, the defendants, together with Web page, “acknowledge that they don’t have any declare in anyway to or with respect to the Holmes Composition [of Dazed and Confused].”
Thus, the track’s use in Turning into Led Zeppelin and in various Yardbirds compilation albums launched in recent times violates Holmes’ copyright on the composition and the 2011 settlement, the grievance alleges.
Additionally named as defendants are WC Music Corp. (a division of Warner Chappell Music), Succubus Music Restricted (Jimmy Web page’s music publishing firm), Sony Photos Classics, which distributed Turning into Led Zeppelin, and various movie manufacturing corporations concerned in making the film.
“Web page, [Succubus Music] and WC Music Corp. have willfully infringed the Holmes Composition.”
Authorized grievance in opposition to Jimmy Web page et al introduced by Jake Holmes
“By falsely claiming that the Holmes Composition is the Web page Composition, by falsely authorizing use of the Holmes Composition as if it’s the Web page Composition and by falsely gathering and receiving monies rightfully belonging to Plaintiff to be used of his Holmes Composition, Web page, [Succubus Music] and WC Music Corp. have willfully infringed the Holmes Composition,” acknowledged the grievance, which might be learn in full right here.
The grievance states that legal professionals for Holmes despatched a cease-and-desist letter to the defendants on April 14, however defendants “have ignored plaintiff’s stop and desist demand and proceed to infringe the Holmes Composition by… purporting to authorize its use within the movie and/or releasing the movie to ‘video on demand’ on streaming platforms together with Amazon and Apple TV.”
Attorneys for Web page or the opposite defendants haven’t but filed a proper response to the grievance.
Greater than a decade in the past, Led Zeppelin’s traditional Stairway to Heaven discovered itself on the middle of a closely-watched copyright infringement lawsuit.
The property of the late Randy Wolfe (aka Randy California), a member of the band Spirit, accused Web page and fellow Zeppelin member Robert Plant of ripping off the opening riff of Stairway to Heaven from the Spirit monitor Taurus.
In 2016, a jury cleared Web page and Plant of the copyright infringement declare, however the case was appealed and solely lastly got here to an in depth in October 2020 when the US Supreme Courtroom refused to listen to an attraction of a decrease court docket’s ruling upholding the jury verdict.Music Enterprise Worldwide
