Further to our recent posting about the legal dispute between the estate of Ed Townsend and Ed Sheeran (https://www.soulandjazzandfunk.com/news/seconds-out/) you might already know that a New York court has ruled in favour of the British singer/songwriter.
Essentially, the heirs of Townshend (co-writer of ‘Let’s Get It On’) argued that Sheeran, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Publishing owed them money for copyright infringement. Our Ed strenuously denied the charge saying he would give up his music career if found guilty.
After a shorter hearing than most anticipated, the jury cleared Sheeran of all charges. Outside court he said: “It looks like I’m not going to have to retire from my day job after all. But at the same time I am absolutely frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all. If the jury had decided this matter the other way we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters.”
As a footnote, a musicologist for Sheeran’s defence told the court that the four-chord sequence in question was used in several songs before Gaye’s hit came out in 1973!
