Ed Sheeran arrives at a Manhattan courthouse to testify at a trial where he is accused of plagiarizing Marvin Gaye Let' s Get It On Credit: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ed Sheeran faces trial and is sued for allegedly plagiarizing Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On in his hit song Thinking Out Loud.
The heirs of Gaye's 1973 co-creator of classic soul Ed Townsend are suing Sheeran, alleging the English pop star's 2014 hit bears a 'striking resemblance' to 'Let's Get It On' and «explicit common elements». that infringe their copyrights.
The lawsuit, filed in 2017, has finally reached a trial that is expected to last up to two weeks in a Manhattan federal courtroom over 95-year-old Judge Louis L. Stanton .
Sheeran, 32, is one of them. witnesses were to testify.
Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer, delivered the plaintiff's opening statement on Tuesday.
"If you don't remember anything else about this trial process, about this case, just remember that it's about giving credit where it should be,» he said.
Although the jury will listen to the recordings of both songs, probably many times, their lyrics are legally void. Jurors are expected to consider only the raw melody, harmony, and rhythm elements that make up Let's Get It On, as documented in the notes filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Attorneys Sheeran says that the undeniable structural symmetry of the songs points only to the foundations of popular music.
«These two songs have versions of a similar and unprotected chord progression that was freely available to all songwriters,» they said in a court case. suit.
Seamless mashups
Lawyers for the Townsend family pointed out in the lawsuit that artists including Boyz II Men performed smooth two-song mixes, and even Sheeran himself jumped to Let's Get It On during Thinking Out Loud's live performances.
They sought to show the jury a YouTube video of one of these Sheeran performances. Stanton rejected their request to include it, but said he would revisit it after he saw the other evidence presented.
Gaye's estate is not involved in the case, although it will inevitably have echoes of their successful lawsuit against Robin. Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. due to the similarity of their 2013 hit Blurred Lines to Gaye's 1977 song Got to Give it Up.
The jury awarded Gaye's heirs $7.4 million (£5.97 million) in court and later the judge cut them down to $5.3m (£4.3m), making it one of the biggest copyright infringement cases in decades.
Sheeran's label Atlantic Records and Sony/ATV Music Publishing are also named as defendants in the Thinking Out Loud lawsuit.
Typically, copyright infringement plaintiffs cast a wide web by naming the defendants, although the judge can drop any names he deems inappropriate. However, in this case, Sheeran's co-writer, Amy Wedge, was never named.
Townsend, who also wrote the 1958 R&B doo-wop hit For Your Love, was a singer-songwriter and lawyer. He died in 2003. Katherine Townsend Griffin, his daughter, is the plaintiff leading the lawsuit.
Sheeran's musical style, based on classic soul, pop and R&B, has made him a target for copyright infringement lawsuits.
A year ago, he won the UK copyright battle for his 2017 hit Shape of You and went on to criticize what he called a «culture» of baseless lawsuits aimed at squeezing money from artists. seeks to avoid trial costs.
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