Ed Sheeran emerges victorious in copyright infringement lawsuit regarding ‘Thinking Out Loud’
The court observed that components of a 1973 song allegedly plagiarized by Sheeran had been used in songs released prior to the 1973 song.
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of singer Ed Sheeran in a case accusing him of plagiarizing music from a five-decade-old song.
SAS claimed that similarities in chord progression and harmonic rhythm existed between the two songs. Sheeran sought summary judgment, which allows a court to decide based on evidence and statements without a full trial.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled in Sheeran’s favor, determining he did not violate protected elements of “Let’s Get It On.”
The court found that the chord progression and harmonic rhythm in the 1973 song are “so common, individually and combined, that protecting their combination would grant [Let’s Get It On] an impermissible monopoly over a fundamental musical building block.”
SAS appealed this decision to the Appeals Court, which on Nov. 1 upheld the district court’s ruling.
Related Stories
“Let’s Get It On” was written by Ed Townsend and Marvin Gaye. Townsend copyrighted the song in 1973 by submitting the Deposit Copy to the Copyright Office, containing the sheet music for the song’s melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrics.
The district court found SAS’s infringement claim limited to the scope of the Deposit Copy. SAS argued in its appeal that the district court erred in restricting the evidence.
However, the Appeals Court upheld the district court’s decision, stating that “the scope of a copyright in a musical work registered under the Copyright Act of 1909 (‘1909 Act’) is limited to the elements found in the copy of the work deposited with the Copyright Office.”
In essence, the Copyright Act protects only the musical composition of a song based on the sheet music deposited with the Copyright Office.
“We uphold the district court’s exclusion of evidence—including expert testimony—beyond the four corners of the Deposit Copy,” the court remarked.
Challenging Summary Judgment
SAS contested the district court’s move to issue a summary judgment, arguing that a jury should decide the case by examining song similarities.
Yet, the Appeals Court declared that the district court was correct in granting Sheeran a summary judgment.
“SAS failed to establish a factual dispute on whether the selection and arrangement of the musical building blocks—four-chord progression and syncopated harmonic rhythm—were original enough to be protected,” the court highlighted. “Taking everything into account, no reasonable jury could find Thinking Out Loud significantly similar to Let’s Get It On to infer wrongful copying.”
The Appeals Court noted that SAS did not counter the evidence that the same four-chord progression and syncopated harmonic rhythm had appeared in multiple songs predating “Let’s Get It On.”
“If this case had succeeded, many songs could have been challenged and creativity would have been limited,” he noted. “This is not Ed’s first win in copyright disputes but is a win for all songwriters.”
Sheeran has faced numerous copyright lawsuits due to his music drawing inspiration from various styles like pop, classic soul, and R&B. Rather than settling, he has chosen to go to trial in these cases.
He emphasized that such actions are “extremely damaging to the songwriting industry.”
