Ed Sheeran, along with his record label Warner Music and music publisher Sony Music Publishing, successfully convinced a US appeals court on Friday to maintain a ruling that his 2014 hit 'Thinking Out Loud' did not illegally replicate Marvin Gaye's 1973 classic 'Let's Get It On.' The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan sided with a lower-court judge's dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Structured Asset Sales, which holds the rights to the Gaye song that were previously owned by co-writer Ed Townsend.
Structured Asset Sales' owner, investment banker David Pullman, stated that the company is evaluating all available options following the court's decision. Lawyers and spokespeople for Sheeran and the other defendants did not promptly respond to similar inquiries. In May 2023, Sheeran triumphed in a separate copyright lawsuit brought by Townsend's heirs, who own a different share of his interest in 'Let's Get It On,' during a highly scrutinized jury trial.
SAS filed a lawsuit against Sheeran in 2018. US District Judge Louis Stanton dismissed the case following the verdict in the heirs' lawsuit. Stanton concluded that the musical elements Sheeran was accused of copying were too commonplace to warrant copyright protection. The appeals court concurred, stating that protecting such elements could hinder creativity, and that Sheeran's and Gaye's songs were not sufficiently similar for Sheeran's to infringe on SAS's copyright.
The court also dismissed the argument that Stanton should have examined Gaye's actual recording, which Pullman claimed contained crucial elements that Sheeran copied, instead of focusing on the song's sheet music filed with the US Copyright Office. SAS has since filed another lawsuit against Sheeran based on its rights in Gaye's recording. That case is currently pending.
Source link: https://www.khaleejtimes.com
