Ed Sheeran Won’t Have to Retire: Jury Rules Singer-Songwriter Not Liable for Copyright Infringment
The verdict is in for Ed Sheeran.
A jury ruled Thursday that Sheeran was not liable for infringing on copyright in a case in which he was accused of copying music chords from Marvin Gaye’s R&B hit “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote his 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud.”
The copyright infringement lawsuit was brought by the family of singer-songwriter Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye’s song. The lawsuit reportedly sought $100 million in damages.
The plaintiffs had alleged there were similarities between the chord progression, harmonic rhythm, and certain melodies in the two songs. Sheeran’s legal team contended that the melodies are different and the elements used in both songs are common in pop music and not particular to Townsend’s song.
Following the verdict announcement, Sheeran stood up and hugged his team before mouthing “thank you” to the jury.
Outside the courthouse, Sheeran paused to speak to the press, though he did not answer any questions. The singer/songwriter also known for the hit “Shape of You” told reporters that he’s happy about “not having to retire from [his] day job” after saying he would stop writing music if he lost the trial.
“If that happens, I’m done — I’m stopping,” he previously testified in court. He said he was “grateful the jury saw through the attempts” to show “misleading comparisons” made by the plaintiff’s experts between the two songs, finding “similarities where none exist.”
“It’s devastating to be accused of stealing someone else’s song,” Sheeran went on, adding, “We need songwriters and the writing community to come together to bring back common sense” and use “trusted individuals” as music experts so the “creative process can carry on.”
His co-writer Amy Wadge also told the press it feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders. “Thinking Out Loud,” which is one of her first big hits.
“It was just the most unbelievable relief and like seven years of stress just leaving my body,” she told CNN after the verdict was read Thursday, adding that she and Sheeran had “had a few tears.”
Wadge told CNN that the jury’s decision in the copyright case has implications beyond “Thinking Out Loud,”saying it’s important for the next generation of musicians to know that they are still allowed to tap into their creativity when creating art.
“I think it even goes beyond music and the idea that it just comes down to the building blocks of anything — if it was a painting or a film — and for a musician who has just relied upon very little musical knowledge for my whole career, it was terrifying to even contemplate that this could even happen,” she said.
Critics of the lawsuit likened it to an artist trying to copyright a color, and demanding that all subsequent uses of the color would be infringements on that copyright, and that it would require songwriters to make sure that no artist had ever used the same chords in any song ever written before, which would be nearly impossible to do.