Amidst his copyright infringement trial, Ed Sheeran took the stand on Tuesday at the Manhattan federal court.
The singer-songwriter is being sued by the family of the late Ed Townsend, who wrote Marvin Gaye’s hit song “Let’s Get It On.” They claim that Sheeran copied the song in his own hit “Thinking Out Loud,” which was released decades later.
According to Fox Business,
The singer was adamant he had come up with the song himself, sparring at times with the plaintiff’s attorney, Keisha Rice, on the subject of “independent creation.”
Attorney Ben Crump, representing heirs of Gaye’s co-writer Ed Townsend, explained that Sheeran combined the songs during a concert at one point. He said merging the song was tantamount to “a confession.”
Sheeran disagreed with this, stating that it is not uncommon for musicians to incorporate other songs by different artists into their performances.
This isn’t the singer’s first time dealing with this type of lawsuit. In March of last year, he won a copyright suit over his song “Shape of You.” Afterwards, he got on Instagram to talk about how lawsuits like these are damaging to an artist’s reputation.
According to CBS News he stated,
“Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That’s 22 million songs a year, and there’s only 12 notes that are available.”
That very argument is the same one that his lawyers are using now for this lawsuit. They explained in a court filing that while the two songs are similar, what they share is an “unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters.”
The trial, which started on Monday, is expected to last two weeks. If the jury chooses in favor of Sheeran, the case will be closed. If they choose in favor of the plaintiffs, however, a trial on damages will take place immediately after using the same jurors.
[Fox Business] [CBS News]
