‘Very happy’ Ed Sheeran wins Thinking Out Loud copyright case

The civil lawsuit filed by the estate of Marvin Gaye’s co-writer closely watched the implications for the musicians’ creative freedom.

British pop star Ed Sheeran has expressed joy and relief after a US jury found he did not plagiarize Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On when he wrote his mega-hit Thinking Out Loud, calling the ruling a victory for creative freedom.

The English musician hugged his team inside a Manhattan courthouse Thursday after a jury ruled that he had “independently” created the 2014 Grammy Award-winning song.

The closely watched lawsuit was filed by the estate of Gaye’s co-writer Ed Townsend, who sued Sheeran for copyright infringement in 2017, alleging that Thinking Out Loud copied the “heart” of Gaye’s song, including its melody. , harmony and rhythm.

The heirs sought a share of the proceeds from Sheeran’s hit.

Outside of court, the singer-songwriter told reporters that it had been “devastating to be accused of stealing someone else’s song” and that he was “very happy” with the outcome.

“If the jury had decided this matter differently, we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of composers,” Sheeran said.

Industry experts closely watched the civil suit amid concerns it could open the door to future litigation and hamper songwriters’ creativity.

It was Sheeran’s second copyright lawsuit in a year. In April 2022, he won a case in London over his 2017 hit song Shape Of You, saying the lawsuit was emblematic of copyright litigation going too far.

There have been a handful of landmark music copyright cases in recent years.

One of the most notable was in 2015, when Gaye’s family members successfully sued artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over similarities between their song Blurred Lines and Gaye’s Got to Give it Up.

The result surprised many in the industry, including legal experts, who considered many of the cited musical components to be fundamental and largely existing in the public domain.

In this month’s case, Sheeran, 32, testified in court, guitar in hand, playing demos for the court to prove that the 1-3-4-5 chord progression in question was a “building block.” common to pop music and may not be proprietary

She said that her friend and collaborator Amy Wadge began playing the chords for the song during a visit to her home in England and that they collaborated on the lyrics.

A defense musicologist told the court that the four-chord sequence had been used in several songs before Gaye’s 1973 hit came out.

These chords “are a composer’s ‘alphabet,’ our toolkit,” Sheeran said Thursday.

“No one owns them, or the way they are played, in the same way that no one owns the color blue.”

Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, told the AFP news agency that he was “delighted” that “sanity prevailed” in the case.

“In music copyright litigation, cases involving one or two bars of music, the plaintiff’s accusation of plagiarism is almost always incorrect,” he said. “Coincidental similarity happens all the time, particularly with chords and short melodic fragments.”

“Hopefully this sensible verdict deters further false claims.”

Lawyers for Townsend’s estate did not immediately respond to the verdict.

Sheeran faces two similar lawsuits in New York, brought by investment banker David Pullman’s Structured Asset Sales, which also owns copyright interests in Gaye’s song.

Pullman said after the verdict that he and his lawyers had learned from the trial.

“We will know what to expect,” Pullman said.