Ed Sheeran has beaten a copyright appeal over his track ‘Thinking out Loud’.
Last year, the star and his long-time collaborator Amy Wadge were cleared by a New York jury after being accused by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote ‘Let’s Get It On’, of ripping off Townsend and Marvin Gaye’s track for their own song.
However, Structured Asset Sales, the partial owners of the copyright of Townsend, later brought a new case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which was ultimately unsuccessful.
The appeals court ruled that the two songs share only “fundamental musical building blocks” which cannot be owned by a single songwriter, Billboard reports.
The panel of appeals court judges ruled: “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. 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.
“In the field of popular songs, many, if not most, compositions bear some similarity to prior songs. So while a similar chord progression and harmonic rhythm may create a similar sound and feel, that is not enough.”
Ed’s attorney Donald Zakarin of the law firm Pryor Cashman, told Billboard: “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.'”