Ed Sheeran wins Marvin Gaye copyright case
A US court has ruled that Ed Sheeran did not copy the Marvin Gaye song ‘Let’s Get It On’ when composing the 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’.
Throughout the case, the British musician has denied stealing elements of Gaye’s song for his hit. It was brought forward when heirs of Gaye’s Ed Townsend claimed that Sheeran, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Publishing owed them reparations for copyright infringement. It was reported that Sheeran told the New York court that he would retire from music if found guilty. “If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” he said when recently asked about the effect of the trial on his personal life.
During the trial, Sheeran sang and played parts of his song on the guitar and maintained that he wrote the song at his home in England with friend Amy Wadge and that, at the time, he was inspired by a new romantic relationship and his grandparents.
Ilene Farkas, the lawyer for Sheeran, told the jury that the similarities in rhythm and chord progressions between the two pieces were “the letters of the alphabet of music.” She continued: “These are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use, or all of us who love music will be poorer for it”.
Keisha Rice, the legal representative of Ed Townsend’s heirs, said her clients did not claim to own elementary musical elements but “the way in which these common elements were uniquely combined.”
“Mr Sheeran is counting on you to be very, very overwhelmed by his commercial success,” she said, encouraging the jury to use their “common sense” in making a decision.
Ed Sheeran is also facing claims concerning ‘Thinking Out Loud’ from a company owned by ‘Bowie Bonds’ investment banker David Pullman, as it holds copyright interests in the 1973 Gaye song.
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