A jury in Manhattan determined that the blockbuster song “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran did not violate LETS GET IT ONs copyright.
Sheeran covered his face momentarily in relief when the verdict from the New York jury that he did not violate the copyright was in the positive, and then he stood up and embraced his attorney.
Ed Sheeran Did Not Violate LETS GET IT ONs Copyright
After a two-week trial, the singer Ed Sheeran performed in court, insisting, at times angrily, that the trial was a threat to all musicians who make their own music.
It was then revealed that Sheeran is “obviously very happy with the outcome of the case,” and he added, “it looks like I’m not having to retire from my day job after all.”
But at the same time, he added, “I’m unbelievably frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.” Eight years, according to Sheeran, were spent discussing two songs with “dramatically” dissimilar lyrics and melodies, as well as “four chords which are also different and used by songwriters everyday all over the world.”
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Sheeran spoke into detail about the trial’s emotional toll on him, mentioning that it forced him to miss attending his family’s funeral for his grandmother in Ireland. He remarked, “I’ll never get that time back.”
Ben Crump, the lawyer representing the Townsend heirs, informed the jury at the beginning of the trial that Sheeran sometimes played the two songs together. The jury saw a video of a performance Sheeran performed in Switzerland, during which Sheeran is heard switching between the songs “Let’s Get It On“ and “Thinking Out Loud” on stage. Crump said there was “smoking gun” evidence of his plagiarism of the well-known song.
Sheeran demonstrated how he effortlessly combines songs during performances to “spice it up a bit” for his sizable audiences by repeatedly picking up a guitar that was laying behind him on the witness stand.
The upbeat demeanor that the English pop singer had when being questioned by his attorney, Ilene Farkas, almost disappeared during cross-examination.
Sheeran revealed that the case was being keenly observed by others in the business during his evidence, saying “When you write songs, somebody comes after you.”
Insisting that he didn’t copy anything from “Let’s Get it On” in the process of writing his song. Townsend’s heirs claimed in their lawsuit that “Thinking Out Loud” had “overt common elements” and “striking similarities” that made it clear that it had plagiarized “Let’s Get It On,” a song that has received hundreds of millions of streams, spins, and radio plays over the past 50 years.
