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9 June 2016Copyright

Ed Sheeran faces $20m copyright claim over ‘Photograph’

Singer Ed Sheeran has been targeted in a $20 million copyright infringement lawsuit by two US musicians, in a dispute centring on his hit song ‘Photograph’.

In a complaint filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California, Southern Division yesterday, June 8, Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard said “Photograph” had similar elements to their track “Amazing”.

“Photograph” was included in the album “x”, released in the US in 2014. The song was released as a single a year later.

Harrington and Leonard, who own music company HaloSongs, claim to have written “Amazing” in 2009.

The pair said Sheeran “copied, and exploited, without authorisation or credit, the work of other active, professional songwriters, on a breath-taking scale.”

“Amazing” was performed by singer Matt Cardle, the winner of the 2010 series of UK TV talent show “X Factor”, in 2011.

The songwriters are asking for $20 million in damages and a trial by jury.

Johnny McDaid, a member of UK band Snow Patrol, who is credited as a co-writer of “Photograph,” and Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner Music Group and its subsidiary, Atlantic Recording Corporation have also been named as defendants.

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