Handwritten Hotel California lyrics at heart of trial

Handwritten pages inscribed with the first known iterations of legendary rock song Hotel California will take centre stage at a criminal trial on Wednesday.

Glenn Horowitz, Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski have been charged with conspiring to sell pages from the yellow lined pad, along with other Eagles lyrics, without the rights.

The notepad was allegedly stolen before they bought it, prosecutors said.

The three men have pleaded not guilty.

The Manhattan district attorney's office is expected to call former Eagles member Don Henley as its star witness.

When the manuscripts in question were put up for sale in 2012, Henley claimed they had been stolen, prompting Manhattan prosecutors to investigate.

The non-jury trial will include more than 80 pages of draft lyrics from the 1976 Hotel California album, including famous lines from the eponymous hit like: "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Mr Horowitz, Mr Inciardi and Mr Kosinki are facing charges with conspiracy to possess stolen property and other offences, not with stealing the documents themselves.

Prosecutors still will have to prove the documents were stolen, for the charges to stick. However, defence laywers have said the documents were not stolen.

The dispute dates back to the late 1970s, when writer Ed Sanders was working on a biography for the Eagles.

The band had reportedly allowed Mr Sanders to access their archives, which included they lyrics-filled notepads.

He sold them to Mr Horowitz, a rare-books dealer, for $50,000 in 2005, according to Vulture.

Mr Horowitz then sold the lyrics to Mr Inciardi and Mr Kosinski, a memorabilia company owner.

Mr Henley told a grand jury he never gave Mr Sanders the lyrics, according to court filings obtained by the Associated Press.

Mr Sanders was not charged in the case.

Defence lawyers have suggested otherwise, casting doubt on Henley's memory.

"We believe that Mr Henley voluntarily provided the lyrics to Mr Sanders," attorney Scott Edelman said in court last week.

Other manuscript pages in the lawsuit include lyrics from songs like Life in the Fast Lane and New Kid in Town.

The Grammy-winning song Hotel California was streamed over 220 million times in the US alone last year and got 136,000 plays on the radio, according to the entertainment data company Luminate.

The album with the same name has sold 26 million copies nationwide.