Ed Sheeran to face court over Marvin Gaye plagiarism case

nme.com:

Ed Sheeran will enter his third set of court proceedings over his songwriting, with the musician set to face a jury trial following a suit from a stakeholder in the estate of Marvin Gaye‘s co-writer.The ruling came yesterday (September 29) from Judge Louis Stanton, a senior district judge for the Southern District of New York.

Per Billboard, the case will determine whether Ed Sheeran’s hit single ‘Thinking Out Loud’ is in breach of copyright due to its similarities with Gaye’s 1973 single ‘Let’s Get It On’.The suit came from Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns a stake in the copyrights of the estate of Ed Townsend – a co-writer on ‘Let’s Get It On’.

It was originally filed back in 2016, with a decision regarding jury involvement coming in 2019.Despite Sheeran’s lawyers arguing that the elements from ‘Let’s Get It On’ perceived to be present in ‘Thinking Out Loud’ are not substantial enough to warrant a copyright breach, Judge Stanton has stated that determining such a thing is not as simple as that.“There is no bright-line rule that the combination of two unprotectable elements is insufficiently numerous to constitute an original work,” said Stanton. “A work may be copyrightable even though it is entirely a compilation of unprotectable elements.”The news that Sheeran must face court again comes just months after a case revolving around his song ‘Shape Of You’ was determined in his favour.