Jimmy Page, Sony Pictures Settle Copyright Lawsuit Over “Dazed and Confused”
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 1, 2025 (Reuters) – Former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Warner Chappell Music, and Sony Pictures have quietly reached a settlement with songwriter Jake Holmes, resolving a renewed copyright dispute over Holmes’s 1967 composition “Dazed and Confused”, the parties informed a U.S. federal court Friday
Holmes originally wrote and recorded the song for his debut album in 1967. That same year, Page’s band, The Yardbirds, began performing a reworked version, and in 1969 Page recorded it with Led Zeppelin — crediting himself as sole author at the time After Holmes sued in 2010, the case was settled in 2011 with Led Zeppelin reissues crediting the track as “Jimmy Page – inspired by Jake Holmes”. The settlement recognized Holmes as the sole owner of the original composition and granted him exclusive licensing rights
Holmes’s new suit, filed in May 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that recent archival releases—especially live Yardbirds recordings released in compilations—and the 2025 documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin reused his song without licensing or proper credit, breaching the 2011 agreement and infringing his copyright . The complaint sought statutory damages of at least $150,000 per infringement and an injunction to block further unauthorized use of the film and recordings
The parties notified the court they had reached a settlement and were drafting a written agreement. No details, including financial terms, were disclosed. Representatives for Holmes, Warner Chappell, and Sony declined to comment; Page’s attorneys did not respond to repeated inquiries before press time (.
Holmes v. Page, No. 2:25‑cv‑03977, highlights the enduring complexities of intellectual property rights in music. Analysts note the case illustrates how authorized retrospectives and archival releases can reopen long‐settled disputes when past agreements fail to cover emerging materials — especially in high‑visibility projects like Netflix‑style documentaries
Leave a Reply