A U.S. attorney is threatening to hold up the release of Led Zeppelin's upcoming Led Zeppelin Iv album reissue over a credit.

Francis Alexander Molofiy is representing late Spirit guitarist Randy California, who he claims inspired the classic tune Stairway to Heaven.

Molofiy alleges the 1971 single, which appears on Iv, was lifted from Spirit's 1968 song Taurus, and he is hoping to prevent the rockers from releasing the remastered album, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The lawyer says, "The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on Stairway to Heaven. It's been a long time coming."

Led Zeppelin performed with Spirit in the late 1960s and California previously called Stairway to Heaven a "rip-off", adding, "The guys made millions of bucks on it and never said, 'Thank you', never said, 'Can we pay you some money for it?'"

Reissues of the albums Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin Ii and Led Zeppelin IiI are due in stores next month (Jun14). There is no scheduled release date for Led Zeppelin Iv.