"Jury finds Led Zeppelin did not steal intro to 'stairway to heaven'"

CNBC:  The verdict in Los Angeles settles a point that music fans have debated for decades but didn't find its way to court until two years ago, when the trustee for the late Randy Craig Wolfe filed a copyright lawsuit.

Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant told CNBC they were grateful to the jury for confirming what they said they have known for 45 years.

"We appreciate our fans' support, and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us," Page and Plant said in a statement....

In trying to show the works were substantially similar, the trust had the tricky task of relying on sheet music because that's what is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Jurors were not played the "Taurus" recording, which contains a section that sounds very similar to the instantly recognizable start of "Stairway." Instead, they were played guitar and piano renditions by musicians on both sides of the case. Not surprisingly, the plaintiff's version on guitar sounded more like "Stairway" than the defense version on piano.

Experts for both sides dissected both compositions, agreeing mainly that they shared a descending chord progression that dates back three centuries as a building block in lots of songs.

I was goin to leave this story to ChickL if he wanted to post about it, but I could not resist passing up that story title.  (Link)

Was Pirated Code Used By HealthCare.gov?

Aargh!

Should copyright even exist when so many lives are at stake?

Attention to detail

"They spent an entire day working to put it together and what emerged shows just how incredible the attention to detail in this world [GTA V] is. Yes, it’s obviously computer generated, but the tiny details the developers built in helps the time-lapse not to seem strange, but perfectly normal."

Random V - Timelapse

 

"Obviously virtual worlds can’t replace real life (though some people might disagree…) but it’ll be interesting to see how these experiments evolve. Eventually we might have fine art photography from inside a game. Then again, at that point, who owns the photo? Is it the photographer? Or the people who created the world you’re photographing?"