Ed Sheeran has come out victorious in an appeal case involving his 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud,” with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling that it did not infringe the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
Sheeran was first accused of musical plagiarism in 2016 by the family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On.” That suit was dismissed in 2017, but was followed in 2018 by another suit filed by Structured Asset Sales, a company that owns part of the 1973 song’s royalties, claiming Sheeran copied Gaye’s chord progression and rhythm.
On Friday, the court deemed that the two songs share only “fundamental musical building blocks” and that to rule in favor of Structured Asset Sales would be detrimental to artists’ creativity everywhere.
READ MORE: How Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ Transformed Worry Into Faith
“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,” the judges said in their ruling (via Billboard). “Overprotecting such basic elements would threaten to stifle creativity and undermine the purpose of copyright law.”
Other Copyright Lawsuits
Sheeran and Gaye are just one example of high-profile plagiarism lawsuits that have surfaced in recent years. In 2020, after years of litigation, a court ruled that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” did not infringe on the copyright of a 1968 song called “Taurus” by Spirit.
In 2015, Tom Petty’s name was awarded a co-writing credit for Sam Smith’s 2014 hit “Stay With Me” due to similarities between it and Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
“All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen,” Petty said in a statement at the time.
Top 25 Soul Albums of the ’70s
There’s more to the decade than Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but those legends are well represented.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
