Ed Sheeran defeats a copyright lawsuit for his Grammy-winning song “Thinking Out Loud” and the Marvin Gaye classic ‘Let’s Get It On.’
The jury reached its decision after roughly three hours of deliberations. Sheeran hugged his attorneys when the verdict was read.
The singer, 32, strongly denied the accusation his hit stole fundamental musical elements from Gaye’s song. He had faced a $100 million lawsuit.
Speaking outside the court, Ed – who is worth $200 million – said: “I’m just a guy with a guitar who loves writing music for people to enjoy. I am not and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank.”
“I’m obviously very happy with the outcome of the case and it looks like I’m not having to retire from my day job after all. But at the same time, I’m unbelievably frustrated the basis of claims like this are allowed to go to court at all,” Sheeran said in a video posted to his Instagram. “We’ve spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically different lyrics, melodies and four chords which are also different and are used by songwriters every day all over the world.”
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This isn’t Sheeran’s first time in the courtroom defending his music. He previously won a court fight in the U.K. in 2017 over his song “Shape of You.” The musician similarly criticized the lawsuit after that verdict.
Credit: Newsweek, ABC, Today, Fox News