British pop star Ed Sheeran comes out victorious following a lawsuit filed against him by the heirs of Gaye co-writer, Ed Townsend. After alleging that harmonic progressions and rhythmic elements of Sheeran’s song “ Thinking out loud” were lifted from the Marvin Gaye famous classic “ Let’s get it on” without permission, a share of the profits from Sheeran’s song were sought by the heirs. A number of songs were played by the pop star from the witness stand as evidence in the civil trial. The musician testified that most of his songs are written by him, and noted that he wrote this particular song with his regular writing partner, Amy Wadge. Considering the jurors tasks with deciding whether Sheeran’s song is to some extent similar to the Gaye’s classic and if there is any common elements protected by copyright law, the jurors ended up ruling in his favour stating that Sheeran independently created his song.
Sheeran’s song charted America’s Billboard Hot 100 and even won song of the year at the Grammys in 2016. The star spent days testifying with a guitar in his hand, playing demos for the court to prove chord progression which was primarily in question. The case depended more on the actual composition of the song than the recorded version. Expert witnesses were hired by both the teams to explain technical details to jurors, however, conclusions did differ slightly. Gaye’s family who were not part of the New York lawsuit against the artist, have successfully sued artists Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams over similarities between their song “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up” therefore, cases like this have always been a handful even in the past years.
Many people in the industry were surprised by the results of the case. On the other hand, the English musician was seen hugging his team inside the Manhattan court as he was very happy to have not been found liable for copyright infringement. The song writer told reports how devastated he was over the accusations before and is now extremely happy about the outcome.
