Ed Sheeran did not infringe on Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get it On” copyright when he wrote his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud,” a New York jury found Thursday, ending a longstanding case that l The music industry has warned it could inhibit songwriters.
The British pop phenomenon, who was present during the two-week trial in New York and testified in his defense, was accused of having copied the “harmonic, melodic and rhythmic” elements of Gaye’s 1973 song, while not paying royalties author to songwriters properties.
Sheeran’s lawyers admitted the compositions shared similar “building blocks”, including a particular chord progression, but argued that was true of many pop songs.
The verdict concludes one of the most significant music copyright trials for years, as songwriters increasingly worry about the blurred lines between inspiration and theft.
“I am very happy with the outcome of the case, and it seems that I won’t have to retire from my day job after all,” Sheeran he told reporters on the courthouse steps.
“At the same time I’m incredibly frustrated that unsubstantiated claims like this could go to court,” he added. “Chords are common building blocks that were used to make music long before ‘Lets Get it On’ was written, and will be used to make music long after we’re all gone.
“They’re in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and they should be there for all of us to use. Nobody owns them. . . in the same way that no one owns the color blue.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, including the daughter of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote Gaye’s hit, played a fan-made video recording of a Zurich concert in 2014, in which Sheeran squashed his song with “Let’s Get it On”. live on stage.
In response to the video, which the plaintiffs called a “smoking gun,” Sheeran told the court, “Frankly, if I did what you accuse me of doing, I’d be a complete idiot to stand on stage in front of 20,000 people and to do it.
He strummed a guitar in front of jurors to demonstrate how easily different popular songs could be mixed.
Sheeran testified that he and co-composer Amy Wadge had written “Thinking Out Loud” during a multi-day writing session in Suffolk. He said his entourage soon noticed similarities between the track and Van Morrison’s songs, rather than Gaye’s.
“While this decision does not set a direct legal precedent (as all of these cases tend to hinge on their particular factual circumstances), the outcome here will be reassuring to many within the music industry,” Nick Eziefula, music and rights attorney author at Simkins said of the verdict.
He added that it would “alleviate concerns about opening the door to more and more song infringement complaints of this sort.”
Sheeran won a separate copyright lawsuit last year involving another of his songs, “Shape of You,” while Gaye’s Legacy won a 2015 lawsuit against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, alleging that the artists had infringed the copyright on a different track, “Got to Give it Up,” with their hit “Blurred Lines.”
At the time, Williams warned that the verdict would “handicap” the musicians. Williams and Thicke were ordered to pay $5 million to Gaye’s estate, plus pending royalties.
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