Ed Sheeran did not rip off Let’s Get It On says jury in song-theft case

completemusicupdate.com:

Ed Sheeran did not infringe the copyright in Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ when he wrote his 2014 song ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

Which I think we already knew, but now we have confirmation of that fact in a US courtroom. The jury deliberating on the latest high profile song-theft case yesterday quickly ruled in Sheeran’s favour.It was the estate of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote ‘Let’s Get It On’, that accused Sheeran of ripping off the earlier song when he created ‘Thinking Out Loud’.

They first sued for copyright infringement all the way back in 2016. Partly because of COVID-caused delays it took nearly seven years for the case to get to trial.

It took the jury just two and half hours to decide that there wasn’t a case for copyright infringement here.The Sheeran side argued throughout that there were similarities between ‘Let’s Get It On’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ simply because they were created using the same musical building blocks.In the words of Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene Farkas during closing arguments this week: “Ed Townsend did not create these basic musical building blocks.