Ed Sheeran has been cleared of copyright infringement in a lawsuit alleging that he copied parts of Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On”.
The verdict was unanimously reached by a New York jury on the second day of deliberations.
Sheeran breathed a sigh of relief and hugged his lawyer after the jury answered a single question in the affirmative, which asked whether Sheeran proved that he did not infringe upon the copyright.
In a lawsuit, Ed Sheeran and his co-writer Amy Wadge were accused of knowingly copying Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” in his hit song “Thinking Out Loud”.
The family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye, claimed that Sheeran copied the song’s iconic four-chord sequence.
However, a jury found Sheeran not liable for copyright infringement, determining that he did not plagiarize elements of Gaye’s soul classic.
Sheeran denied copying the song and played an acoustic guitar for the jurors while explaining that Wadge developed the song’s opening chord progression.
During the trial, lawyers for the Townsend heirs showed the jury a concert video of a live mashup performance in which Sheeran sang both songs, which they claimed was “a smoking gun” proving plagiarism.
During his initial testimony last week, Sheeran denied the video is proof and said it is “quite simple to weave in and out of songs” if they are in the same key.
“I’d be an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that,” Sheeran said of blatant plagiarism. “Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs.”
View the image in full screenSheeran’s song, which came out in 2014, was a hit, winning a Grammy for Song of the Year. His lawyers argued that the songs shared versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression freely available to all songwriters.
While on the stand, Sheeran, was asked by his lawyer, Ilene Farkas, what he would do if he were to lose the lawsuit.
Sheeran’s answer was simple: “If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping.”
The singer called the lawsuit “really insulting.”
“I work really hard to be where I’m at,” he told the jury.
This trial comes one year after Sheeran won a similar copyright lawsuit over his biggest hit, Shape of You. At the time, Sheeran called the lawsuit “really damaging to the songwriting industry.”
Earlier in 2017, Sheeran settled out of court over claims that his song Photograph shared striking similarities to the Matt Cardle song Amazing. He has since said he regrets the settlement because it opened the “floodgates” for more bogus copyright claims.