Ed Sheeran wins ‘Shape of You’ copyright dispute
LONDON: The London High Court today ruled that singer and composer, Ed Sheeran, did not plagiarize Sami Chokri’s song Oh Why , which was published in 2015.
Chokri, who also uses the name Sami Switch, claims the “ Oh I ” melody in Sheeran’s song, Shape of You , is very similar to the “ Oh why ” melody in his own song.
Sheeran described the allegations as baseless.
“A coincidence will definitely happen if there are 60,000 songs released every day on Spotify. This means 22 million songs are released in a year and there are only 12 notes that can be selected to be made into a song,” he said.
Shape of You was the best -selling song in the UK in 2017 and was the most streamed song on Spotify.
Sheeran co -wrote the song with John McDaid of Snow Patrol and producer Steven McCutcheon, and they denied ever hearing the song Oh Why.
Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran “did not imitate, whether intentionally or not” Chokri’s song.
Zacaroli admits there are similarities in the one-bar phrase in the two songs, but not enough to be considered plagiarism and copyright infringement.
source – Agency
