Ed Sheeran's copyright woes as he faces another court case after year from hell
Ed Sheeran has endured some tough times over recent years, with the chart-topping star having to deal with the devastating death of his best pal Jamal Edwards and his wife Cherry Seaborn being diagnosed with a tumour six months into her second pregnancy.
The British singer-songwriter admitted earlier this year how there was a point during the turmoil where he "didn't want to live anymore" amid his personal struggles.
But the Eyes Closed singer, 32, has also had to navigate some tricky incidents in his professional life too, thanks to multiple battles related to the copyright of some of his biggest hit songs.
Dad-of-two Ed cut a solemn figure arriving at Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday, as he prepares to defend himself against a claim he ripped parts of Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On to use on his own track.
The case, which began on Monday, will determine whether Ed's Thinking Out Loud used parts of the 1973 iconic song. The heirs of the late Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the song with Marvin, claim Ed should share the wealth from his profits of his 2014 track.
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Ed's trial in New York, where he will testify as a witness, follows the I Don't Care hitmaker being awarded more than £900,000 in legal costs last year after another copyright claim.
At a trial in March, Ed and his Shape Of You co-writers Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon faced accusations that their track ripped off a 2015 song by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
Jamal Edwards' tragic death in February 2022 severally impacted best pal Ed Sheeran's life (Jamal Edwards/Instagram)
Ed's wife Cherry Seaborn was told she needed surgery for a tumour shortly before Jamal's death (Getty Images)Sami and Ross alleged that an "oh I" hook in Shape Of You was "strikingly similar" to an "oh why" refrain in their own track and issued a claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".
Ed denied the allegations and said he "always tried to be completely fair" when it comes to crediting collaborators and contributors on his albums.
After the 11-day trial in central London, Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded Ed "neither deliberately nor subconsciously" copied a phrase for his Shape Of You Track and made a verdict in favour of Ed and his co-songwriters.
The case last year came while Ed was dealing with the heartbreaking loss of his best pal Jamal - who was the son of Loose Women star Brenda Edwards - and his wife Cherry's serious health issues.
SBTV founder Jamal's death at the age of 31 in February 2022 came shortly after Ed's wife of four years, Cherry Seaborn, was told by doctors while six months pregnant that she needed surgery for a tumour that could not take place until after she had given birth to the couple’s second child.
Ed was left feeling like he 'didn't want to live anymore' at one point last year (Getty Images)Following Cherry's diagnosis and Jamal's untimely passing, Ed sought therapy after feeling like "I didn't want to live anymore".
He told Rolling Stone: "I felt like I didn’t want to live any more. And I have had that throughout my life.
"You’re under the waves drowning. You’re just sort of in this thing. And you can’t get out of it.
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"I’ve always had real lows in my life. But it wasn’t really till last year that I actually addressed it."
Cherry carried their daughter Jupiter to term and had successful surgery in June.
Following his legal victory regarding his Shape Of You tune in 2022, Ed spoke with BBC Two’s Newsnight, and said he had "no other choice" but to defend his work in the High Court.
Ed has previously said 'you can't settle out of principle' (AFP via Getty Images)"You can get a judgement or you can have a settlement and [when] you know that you're in the right, then you can't settle just out of principle. You can't settle," Ed explained.
"Our royalties were frozen and we were given two options and we chose the option that was integral to us," he added.
The Halifax-born singer, said to be worth more than £147 million, admitted the case had taken an "extraordinary strain" on both him and his co-writer, and recalled the case being "long and unpleasant".
Speaking in the same interview, Ed went on to reference another copyright claim against him which he settled out of court in 2017.
In April 2017, Ed reached a deal to end a lawsuit for $20m (£13.8m) over his hit song "Photograph", which was alleged to have been "copied" from a track released by 2010 X Factor winner Matt Cardle.
The X Factor winner released the track in 2011, one year on from winning the ITV talent show (SPLASH)
Ed admitted last year he regrets settling out of court regarding the copyright claim (Dave Benett/Getty Images)Thomas Leonard and Martin Harrington (the duo wrote the song Amazing, released by Matt in 2011) sued Ed and claimed he was "unabashedly taking credit" for their work.
Details of the settlement were not revealed in court papers, after the case was dismissed following both parties coming to an agreement.
Ed explained he settled the case because he was on tour at the time and there was "a culture" around copyright claims that meant he "probably would lose".
He mused on Newsnight in 2022 how setting out of court had "opened the floodgates" for more lawsuits and confessed the case over his track Photograph changed his relationship with the song.
"I didn’t play Photograph for ages after that. I just stopped playing it. I felt weird about it, it kind of made me feel dirty," Ed admitted on the BBC show last year.
Ed's relationship with one of his hit songs changed following the copyright claim (AFP via Getty Images)The singer went on to recall how he felt he had to defend his songwriting integrity when a claim was launched against him regarding his Shape Of You song, saying: "Win or lose, we had to go to court... We had to stand up for what we thought was right."
"You can get a judgement or you can have a settlement and [when] you know that you're in the right, then you can't settle just out of principle. You can't settle," Ed explained.
He added he now films all of his creative writing sessions in order to protect himself from future plagiarism claims, and said his songwriting has been "tainted" as he’s second-guessing himself.
Ed is currently in New York dealing with another legal battle over his song Thinking Out Loud, after the estate of the songwriter behind the Let's Get It On launched a copyright claim.
The lawsuit was filed in 2017 has finally made it to a trial which is expected to last up to two weeks in the Manhattan federal courtroom. Ed is among the witnesses expected to testify.
Ed arriving at Manhattan Court on Tuesday (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)While the jury will hear the recordings of both songs, probably many times, their lyrics are legally insignificant.
Jurors are supposed to only consider the raw elements of melody, harmony and rhythm that make up the composition of Let's Get It On, as documented on sheet music filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Ed's attorneys have said the songs' undeniable structural symmetry points only to the foundations of popular music.
"The two songs share versions of a similar and unprotectable chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters," they said in a court filing.
Townsend family attorneys meanwhile said in their lawsuit that artists including Boyz II Men have performed a number of mashups of the two songs.
They also added that Ed himself had mixed the two during his live performances.
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