Ed Sheeran reacts to Shape of You copyright case win
We told you the story of how Ed Sheeran was sued over his massive hit, Shape of You, a few weeks ago. Sheeran was fighting a lawsuit over copyright issues by makers of another track, titled Oh Why.
The verdict is out and Ed Sheeran has won the copyright battle in court.
Ed Sheeran and his two co-writers, Johnny McDaid and Steve McCutcheon, have denied the copyright claims by Oh Why makers since Day One.
The judge at the London High Court discarded the plagiarism charge, saying that Sheeran has not copied the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue.
FYI: Shape of you was released in 2017.
Judge Antony Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from Oh Why.
The makers of Oh Why, Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue, had claimed in their lawsuit that the hook of Sheeran's Shape of You, “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I”, was copied from their track.
Ed Sheeran had denied these claims from the very beginning. He, along with his co-writers, have also mentioned that they had never heard the track Oh Why before the court case.
Ian Mill QC, Sheeran’s lawyer, said that the three songwriters were clear from the beginning and had denied the claims against them. He added that they had “no preconceived ideas” while writing the song on October 12, 2016.
HOW ED SHEERAN REACTED TO THE WIN
Soon after the verdict, Ed Sheeran, Johnny McDaid and Steve McCutcheon gave a joint statement.
Sheeran said that such “baseless” claims “are way too common”.
“It was now a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no basis for the claim.”
“It's really damaging to the songwriting industry. There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. 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,” he added.
He went on to add, “Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience.”
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With more than three billion streams, Shape of You is the most-streamed song ever on Spotify.
Other than this, Ed Sheeran has been sued over copyright issues for two of his other songs, Thinking Out Loud and Photograph.