-
Ed Sheeran Wins ‘Thinking Out Loud’ Copyright Case Against Marvin Gaye.
A US court has ruled that British heavyweight singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist Edward Christopher Sheeran, popularly known as Ed Sheeran, was not guilty of stealing Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” from another artist.
The award-winning singer-songwriter’s hit song, “Thinking Out Loud,” was not based on the late Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” according to the court.
The Grammy-winning musician was previously sued by the Marvin Gaye estate when Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the daughter of Gaye’s co-writer Ed Townsend, claimed that Sheeran, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing owed money to them for copyright infringement.
Ed, who threatened to end his music career if found guilty, denied using parts of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 blockbuster to produce his own 2014 international success.
According to several reports, a musicologist for Sheeran’s defense made it known to the court that the four-chord sequence in question was used in several songs before Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On” was released.
Ed Sheeran was declared free on May 4, 2023, after the jury in the New York Court ruled him not guilty of the charges levelled against him.
Ed can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that he did not share Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s fate, who after five years of legal wrangling were ordered by a US court to pay the Marvin Gaye estate $5 million for stealing his 1977 hit song “Got to Give It Up” when they wrote their 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines.”
Speaking outside court, Sheeran said he was “obviously very happy” with the ruling.
“It looks like I’m not going to have to retire from my day job after all,” he said. “But at the same time I am absolutely frustrated that baseless claims like this are allowed to go to court at all.
“If the jury had decided this matter the other way we might as well say goodbye to the creative freedom of songwriters.”
“I am not and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for anyone to shake,” he added.