Ed Sheeran wins huge legal case
In a high-profile trial, Ed Sheeran has clinched a victory in a copyright infringement case over his 2017 song Shape of You.
The British singer, along with his two co-writers Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac, were accused of plagiarising Sami Chokri’s 2015 song Oh Why.
In his ruling, the judge concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from Oh Why when writing Shape of You, as Sheeran emphasised during the trial.
In a video statement posted to Twitter, Sheeran said, “While we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court. Even if there’s no base for the claim.”
“It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry. There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify.”
He continued, “I don’t want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered by both sides of this case, but I just want to say that I’m not an entity. I’m not a corporation. I’m a human being. I’m a father. I’m a husband. I’m a son. Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience and I hope with this ruling it means in the future baseless claims like this can be avoided.”
Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, along with his co-writer, sued Sheeran over similarities in the songs in 2018.
During the 11-day trial in London, Sheeran denied he “borrows” ideas from other recording artists, while saying he “always tried to be completely fair” when crediting his inspirations and contributors.
In their testimony, Sheeran, McDaid and Mac all denied being aware of Oh Why prior to writing Shape Of You.
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