A jury discovered as we speak that Ed Sheeran didn’t wrongfully copy Marvin Gaye’s traditional “Let’s Get It On” along with his 2014 hit “Thinking Out Loud.”
The jury reached a unanimous verdict after slightly below three hours of deliberations.
The lawsuit was introduced by the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the Motown traditional. The swimsuit alleged that the syncopated chord sample of Sheeran’s track, which is noticeably just like the 1973 tune, is the beating “heart” of “Let’s Get It On.”
The New York Times reported that, after the decision was rendered, the singer approached Kathryn Griffin Townsend, Mr. Townsend’s daughter, and spoke briefly together with her.
Sheeran learn the next assertion exterior the courtroom:
We spent the previous eight 12 months taking about two songs with dramatically completely different lyrics, melodies and 4 chords that are additionally completely different and utilized by songwriters on daily basis all around the world. These chords are widespread constructing blocks which had been used to create music lengthy earlier than “Let’s Get It On” was written and will likely be used to make music lengthy after we’re all gone. They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our toolkit, and ought to be there for all of us to make use of. No one owns them or the way in which they’re performed, in the identical manner no person owns the colour blue.
The case follows one other high-profile lawsuit by Gaye’s property, during which Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had been ordered to pay $5 million in 2018 after a courtroom discovered that Thicke’s chart-topping “Blurred Lines” copied Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.”
Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.
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