Ed Sheeran Beats ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Copyright Appeal Case
Ed Sheeran did not infringe the copyright to Marvin Gaye‘s Let’s Get It On when he wrote his global hit Thinking About You, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Pre-order +-=÷× (Tour Collection :Live) here
The court said the two songs share only “fundamental musical building blocks” that cannot be owned by any single songwriter. The case argued that Sheeran’s song took a chord progression and rhythm from Gaye’s, but the appeals court said the lawsuit was essentially seeking “a monopoly over a combination of two fundamental musical building blocks.
“The four-chord progression at issue—ubiquitous in pop music—even coupled with a syncopated harmonic rhythm, is too well-explored to meet the originality threshold that copyright law demands,” a panel of appeals court judges wrote. “Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.
“Neither the melody nor the lyrics of Thinking Out Loud bears any resemblance to those in Let’s Get It On. Undeniable and obvious differences exist between them.”
Sheeran’s attorney, Donald Zakarin of the law firm Pryor Cashman, told Billboard that he and his clients were “gratified” by the court’s ruling: “This ruling is consistent with the jury’s rejection of any claim of infringement in the [earlier] case, finding that Ed and Amy independently created ‘Thinking Out Loud.’”
Sheeran has recently announced the release of +-=÷× (Tour Collection: Live), a set which includes live and studio versions of songs from his series of ‘Mathematics’ albums, to be released on 27 December. “We have one more year of this tour then Mathematics is over for good, and onto the next set of symbols…” he posted.
“It’s been 15 years of releasing these Mathematics albums and it’s been a hell of a journey so far. I wanted to make a collection of the songs I play on the tour, but also just to have all the big songs in one place for fans, or new coming fans, a journey of where it’s been and where it is now.”
+-=÷× (Tour Collection: Live) CD tracklisting
Disc 1 [Live]
1. Castle On The Hill (Live)
2. Shivers (Live)
3. The A Team (Live)
4. Don’t/Nina Medley (Live)
5. Lego House (Live)
6. Eyes Closed (Live)
7. Give Me Love (Live)
8. Galway Girl (Live)
9. Thinking out Loud (Live)
10. Sing (Live)
11. Photograph (Live)
12. Tenerife Sea (Live)
13. Perfect (Live)
14. Bloodstream (Live)
15. You Need Me, I Don’t Need You (Live)
16. Shape Of You (Live)
17. Bad Habits (Live)
Disc 2 [Studio]:
1. The A Team
2. Lego House
3. Give Me Love
4. Sing
5. Don’t
6. Thinking out Loud
7. Bloodstream
8. Photograph
9. Tenerife Sea
10. I See Fire
11. Castle On The Hill
12. Shape Of You
13. Galway Girl
14. Perfect
15. Happier
16. Dive
17. I Don’t Care
18. Beautiful People
19. Afterglow
20. Bad Habits
21. Shivers
22. Eyes Closed