Ed Sheeran on trial: fair inspiration or blatant plagiarism?

28-04-2023

Sarah Speight

Ed Sheeran on trial: fair inspiration or blatant plagiarism?

yakub88 / Shutterstock.com

As the singer faces yet another copyright lawsuit—in this case over a Marvin Gaye track—he argues that there are 'only so many notes' in music and that 'coincidence' is inevitable. Sarah Speight asks, does he have a point?

Just a year after he triumphed in the UK’s High Court over Shape of You, Ed Sheeran has once again been stung with a copyright lawsuit—this time in the US.

Sheeran’s 2014 Grammy-winning Thinking Out Loud, which he co-wrote with singer Amy Wadge, is under fire for allegedly pilfering elements of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit Let’s Get It On.

Gaye co-wrote Let’s Get It On with the late Eric Townsend, who received two-thirds of the royalties from the song. Now, Townsend’s heirs—including his daughter Kathyrn Griffin, her sister Helen McDonald, and the estate of Townsend’s former wife, Cherrigale Townsend—have summoned Sheeran to court in New York.


copyright, Ed Sheeran, Marvin Gaye, music

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