Ed Sheeran wins Shape of You copyright case

[MacDaddy]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61006984

 

The verdict is in, so I guess we can legally talk about this now?

 

Gotta say from following it, I agreed with Anthony Ricigliano (appearing for Sheeran) "paraphrasing a quote from West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein: "The pentatonic scale is humanity's favourite scale and is so well known that one can find examples of it from all corners of the Earth"."

 

With any musical plagerism case, this springs to mind:

 

 

[ezbass]

Common sense prevails and the ambulance chasers get to go and do one.

[LukeFRC]

I found this interesting take on music plagiarism 

 

[Storky]

I think the verdict is probably fair enough, but, I can’t help thinking that if the songs were a little more sophisticated, rather than four basic chords looped for the duration of the “song” that these sort of incidents ie. accidentally copying someone else’s “song” where a similar melody is sung over the same four chords, would be much less common and easy to stumble on. IMHO etc

[AndyTravis]

This Ed Sheehan track always reminded me of this track

 

 

[Storky]

11 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

This Ed Sheehan track always reminded me of this track

 

 

Absolutely!

[ahpook]

 

 

[Marvin]

Hopefully no one will start looking at Blues music 🤪...what a minefield that'd be.

[Kev]

Thank god for that, I did think for a moment it may go the other way.

 

Absolutely ridiculous the other fella got his day in court; when there are all kinds of delays and holdups with lawyers/courts at the moment, what a complete waste of everyones time.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, Kev said:

Thank god for that, I did think for a moment it may go the other way.

 

Absolutely ridiculous the other fella got his day in court; when there are all kinds of delays and holdups with lawyers/courts at the moment, what a complete waste of everyones time.

At least it should cost him dearly in the lawyer’s fees department.

[SteveK]

Did this Switch fella bring the case himself? Or was it (as is usual) publisher against publisher?

Hopefully, for Switch, it's the latter😐

Listening to Ed Sheeran you'd think this was a new trend. When I started in the business, *cough* more than 45 years ago, there was already the oft used phrase, "Where there's a hit, there's a writ!"

 

[Barking Spiders]

7 hours ago, Storky said:

I think the verdict is probably fair enough, but, I can’t help thinking that if the songs were a little more sophisticated, rather than four basic chords looped for the duration of the “song” that these sort of incidents ie. accidentally copying someone else’s “song” where a similar melody is sung over the same four chords, would be much less common and easy to stumble on. IMHO etc

Yep. Guess we don't hear of any prog bands suing for plagiarism

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

Yep. Guess we don't hear of any prog bands suing for plagiarism

I thought the same thing - don't recall Jethro Tull or Yes being sued🤘

[Clarky]

6 hours ago, Marvin said:

Hopefully no one will start looking at Blues music 🤪...what a minefield that'd be.

Absolutely. In my blues band, virtually every song in our set plagiarises other songs we play 😁

[Nicko]

20 years ago I wrote and recorded a song and shortly after Pulp released something where the melody was identical.  Lately I wrote a song and not long after heard something by Florence and the Machine which had a similar melody.  Pulp didn't nick my song - it never got past me playing it on a cassette to a handful of people, but I still don't know if I subconsciously stole from Flo. It's some kind of modal melody and not really something that crops up that frequently in pop.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Nicko

[Doctor J]

Yeah, it's common, people.

[fretmeister]

On 06/04/2022 at 11:21, ezbass said:

Common sense prevails and the ambulance chasers get to go and do one.

 

 

It was actually Sheeran that sued for declaratory relief first.

[fretmeister]

As it is painfully clear that nobody in this thread has actually read the judgment here it is

 

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2022/827.html

 

 

1: Sheeran sued first for a declaration that there was no copyright theft, basically to stop the allegations.

2: Chokri then counter claimed

 

Both issues were dealt with at the same hearing. So they both got their day in court and Sheeran needed his day in court too.

 

The massive delays and underfunding in the criminal justice system were not affected at all by the time taken in this civil matter. 

[chris_b]

These spurious claims are a new way for publishers and songwriter to make money from their back catalogue.

[Nicko]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

As it is painfully clear that nobody in this thread has actually read the judgment here it is

Really?  The case was brought by Sheeran in response to Switch having notified the PRS that he wanted part credit for the song.  Clearly this was an attempt to claim royalties and it's only by bringing the case that Sheeran could have the claim as co-writer dismissed.  Or am I missing something?

[tauzero]

On 06/04/2022 at 19:15, SteveK said:

Did this Switch fella bring the case himself? Or was it (as is usual) publisher against publisher?

 

Neither. Ed Sheeran brought the case.

[Cuzzie]

On 06/04/2022 at 11:40, LukeFRC said:

I found this interesting take on music plagiarism 

 

Enjoyed that thanks

[Kev]

18 hours ago, Nicko said:

Really?  The case was brought by Sheeran in response to Switch having notified the PRS that he wanted part credit for the song.  Clearly this was an attempt to claim royalties and it's only by bringing the case that Sheeran could have the claim as co-writer dismissed.  Or am I missing something?

You're not missing anything.

 

 

[Kev]

20 hours ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

1: Sheeran sued first for a declaration that there was no copyright theft, basically to stop the allegations.

2: Chokri then counter claimed

 

Both issues were dealt with at the same hearing. So they both got their day in court and Sheeran needed his day in court too.

Pedantic much?

 

A complete waste of everyone's time. Glad the lad can focus on just making music again now.

 

 

[Cato]

Sheerhan's done an interview for Newsnight about this and other claims against him, I think it's being shown tonight.

 

The clips I've heard are quite interesting apparently he's had so many plagiarism claims made against him that now when he's writing songs he films the whole process, presumably to show that it's an organic process and he's not trawling through spotify looking for songs to rip off.

 

Whether that protects him in future, I have my doubts because there's always 'you're still consciously or subconsciously copying something you heard elsewhere' argument, but it's slightly depressing that he feels he can't just write spontaneously when the inspiration hits anymore without at least trying to protect himself from future litigation.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Cato