US court rules Ed Sheeran not copying songs
Singer Ed Sheeran as he leaves the courthouse in New York.
NEW YORK: A United States (US) court has ruled that Ed Sheeran’s popular song, ‘Thinking Out Loud’, is not a script plagiarized from the song ‘Let’s Get It On’ produced in 1973.
The ruling ends a copyright infringement suit filed by the songwriter’s daughter, Kathryn Townsend Griffin.
Ed Sheeran said the ruling would help protect the creative process for songwriters in the US and around the world.
From the beginning, he denied stealing elements from the song ‘Let’s Get It On’ for his script.
“I am happy with the outcome of this case and it means that I will not retire from my career. But I am disappointed that these baseless accusations have been brought to court.
“We spent eight years talking about two songs that have different lyrics, different melodies and four different chords that songwriters around the world use.
“These four chords were used long before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will continue to be used for a long time. If the jury decides otherwise, we may say goodbye to freedom for lyricists,” he said.
Previously, the heirs of the ‘Let’s Get It On’ songwriter claimed Sheeran, the Warner Group and Sony Music Publishing were responsible for the alleged copyright infringement.
The song ‘Thinking Out Loud’, written by Ed Sheeran created global popularity in 2014.
