Stairway rip-off or not?

[jb stanislas]

Noticed that Led Zep are being sued now with Spirit saying they ripped them off with no royalties they were owed

http://tinyurl.com/nzajdwf

I think they may have been influenced by the Taurus track because the guitar bit in question is similar. Not "the same". The 5th note, downward inflection is Spirit. Stairway has an upward inflection, for a start. Two different things, to my way of thinking. So Spirit are saying you can;t record a song that shows influence from another band;s song? That;s ridiculous and if so, then the blues artsists from the 1920's should lay claim to their entire discography and sue everyone from Peter Green to Muddy Waters.
LZ made a great song from the intro and makes Taurus look lame.....but then America is the most litigious society in the world. Anyway, why wait about 40 years? It;s like when people come forward after 40 years, accusing someone of a sexual crime they say happened back then. Why not wait 20 years instead? If Sabbath wanted to, they could probably make a similar case against Electric Wizard, Stoned Jesus, Orange Goblin, Sleep etc..

My 2 cents/pence worth. Any opinions on this?

[treeboy]

Zeppelins career is littered with "great tunes" cobbled together from other peoples work. I'm sure everyone does it subconsciously, but its the blatant lifts which remain unacknowledged that seem to irk people the most. I was a massive Zeppelin fan in my teens and I could reel off the rip-offs one after another.
Like you say JB, times have changed and everyone seems to be heading to the lawyers for their cut. Can't blame them really.