"Stairway To Heaven" Plagarism court case

It's alright to perform other people's music as long as you pay royalties and give credit. Therefore as long as whoever owns the rights to a song is asked or paid it's okay. When Weird Al does a parody he has to get permission from the person or company that owns the rights to the song. As in "Like a Surgeon" he had to get permission from Madonna.

Dread Zeppelin 

rwwear " ... When Weird Al does a parody he has to get permission from the person or company that owns the rights to the song. As in "Like a Surgeon" he had to get permission from Madonna."

Sorry, but you're mistaken. While you may be correct that Weird Al works closely with the artists he parodies, he’s under no legal obligation to do so. In the U.S., parody and satire are protected under the Fair Use provision of copyright law. The definitive case on this was 2 Live Crew’s treatment of "Oh Pretty Woman." See Acuff-Rose Music v. Campbell, which was decided by the Supreme Court.

To clarify me earlier post, I'm a big LZ fan and the fact that they have a history of stealing others' material is just some baggage that come along with the group.  Remember what Joe E. Brown says at the end of "Some Like It Hot"!

Tostadosunidos, you may very well be correct.  I just think some attorneys are in there's blood in water shark mode and we're going to see more lawsuits.

Bdp24, I don't disagree with your assessment of 60s British blues players in general, although I do have serious respect for Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor as blues guitarists.  One of my favorite guitar solos of all time is JP on the Yardbird's "Smile On Me", but the song is straight rip-off of Howling Wolf.  But then again, Chester Burnett didn't really write "Sitting On Top Of the World".  Everybody steals.

Interestingly, I had created a random Spotify "radio" channel just a couple days ago and Taurus came on. I immediately thought to myself- what a Stairway to Heaven rip off. (I’d never heard it before). Then I thought- I wonder which one came first...

Then I saw this thread. I actually see some merit in the case. The songs are undeniably similar in some ways.