Led Zeppelin wins copyright battle after U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear case

The Supreme Court will not hear the copyright dispute over Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," handing the English rock band a victory by default.

According to Variety and Bloomberg Law, the justices denied a petition to revive the copyright suit that alleged the group stole its 1971 rock epic from a lesser-known 1967 track called "Taurus" from the band Spirit. The court did not explain why it declined to take the case.

In March, a federal appeals court restored a jury verdict that found the band did not steal “Stairway to Heaven."

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco handed the major win to guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant and dealt a blow to the estate of Randy Wolfe of the band Spirit.

The ruling, and the Supreme Court's decision not to revive the case, is a precedent-setting win for musical acts accused of plagiarism and comes in a period when many songwriters, such as Robin Thicke and Katy Perry, have lost high-profile cases.

The case first started in May 2014. Page testified he wrote the music for the song and Plant the lyrics, and that both were original.

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In March, a majority of an 11-judge panel overturned a previous ruling that the jury in the 2016 trial should have heard the recording of “Taurus" and was given poor instructions before jurors found in favor of Page and Plant.

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The composition of the two songs, not their recordings, was at issue in the case, but the plaintiffs sought to play the two recordings for jurors as part of their argument that Page had access to the song “Taurus” as required to prove a copyright violation.

“When Page testified, he candidly admitted to owning ‘a copy of the album that contains ‘Taurus,’” the ruling said. The jury found that both Page and Plant "had access to the musical composition 'Taurus' before 'Stairway to Heaven' " was created, it said.

Many of the judges were skeptical about playing the record at the case's hearing in September, suggesting it was a backdoor way for the plaintiffs to get the jury to hear the record.

"You've got to get your sound recording in to win, don't you?" Judge Andrew Hurwitz said as he questioned Wolfe estate attorney Francis Malofiy. “You lose the case unless you do. A hundred times out of a hundred.”

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Contributing: Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Led Zeppelin 'Stairway to Heaven' copyright lawsuit put to rest