Looks like genial UK pop star ED SHEERAN will be back in the US copyright courts. Just 6 months after Sheeran was cleared of copying with his song ‘Shape Of You’ at a trial in London, an American judge has ruled that a jury must decide on similarities between his ‘Thinking Out Loud’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’. The similarities between the songs was first aired back in 2016 and sparked lengthy litigation
This new plagiarism case was originally lodged in 2018 by investment banker David Pullman and a company called Structured Asset Sales, which has acquired a portion of the estate of ‘Let’s Get It On’ co-writer Ed Townsend. Pullman’s team are seeking $100m (£90m) in damages, they allege that Sheeran and his co-writer Amy Wadge “copied and exploited, without authorisation or credit” the Gaye song, “including but not limited to the melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping”.
Poor old Ed; you may remember that after his last court victory over copying he hit out at “baseless” copyright claims, which he said were “way too common”. This one will run and run!
