I Have Something to Say

AS reported, in the end, the jury had both pieces played on an acoustic guitar, then went back to deliberate and decided, in like 90 minutes.
As with cooking contests, judging has to do with the tastes of the judges, at that time. Not what you like or dislike.

I have heard both songs and while Taurus and Stairway have similarities, it's not the same. I heard that the original writer of Taurus was always bitching about plagiarism, but in my opinion it didn't bother him enough to do something about it. The family filed the suit right before the statute of limitations was up.
There's are only so many musical notes, thus only so many combinations out there. Some will be close, and some even modeled after. The melody was slightly different though. When I heard it, I immediately thought of another song, not Stairway. For the life of me i can't remember what it was now. Of course. Lol.

Too little, too late.
You're talking about a couple of bars, on a song intro.
And like I said, the other writer never demanded credit.
If it was stolen, he was the only one that had the right to claim it.
Book, movie, and songs have had duplicates come out around the same time, over the years. It happens. It doesn't mean anyone stole anything.
And I, for one, don't think they are that identical. Close but different.

"Stairway to Heaven is a very remarkable song beyond the opening riff. I do give Jimmy Page the credit for being a composer without peer.

The justice system and how evidence is allowed is hard to wrap my mind around. The original song "Taurus" was not even allowed as evidence as evidence which was the crux of the case.

If any song defined rock music, "Stairway" was it.

Consider that the song was released in 1971 and the suit wasn't filed for more than 40 years and only then by the relatives, not by the writer of the other song. Although he talked about being copied, he never sued.
Sounds like relatives wanted money for something they weren't involved with.

That does sound like part of it. I still think a credit to Randy California on the original album would have circumvented all of this.