Jury selection commenced on Monday for a trial in which it will be determined whether UK pop star Ed Sheeran plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s classic soul song Let’s Get It On in his 2014 hit Thinking Out Loud. The plaintiffs are the heirs of Ed Townsend, a co-writer and producer of Gaye’s 1973 hit. They contend that there are ‘striking similarities and overt common elements’ between Gaye’s classic and Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. This is not the first time Sheeran has been sued for copyright infringement in the music industry, where such lawsuits have become more common. Sheeran testified last April in a London court in a case related to his song Shape of You, and he may be called as a witness in this trial as well, according to an attorney working on the case.
The family of Townsend has claimed that the group Boyz II Men has performed mash-ups of the two songs and that Sheeran has blended the songs together on stage. Sheeran’s team has denied the allegations, arguing that there are many songs that predate and postdate Gaye’s song, which use the same or similar chord progression. The team has also stated that these medleys are irrelevant to the issues of the case and could confuse the jury.
When Thinking Out Loud was released, it rapidly ascended the charts of America’s Billboard Hot 100, and Sheeran won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 2016. The lawsuit was filed in 2016, then refiled in 2017 after being rejected on procedural grounds. Sony is also named in the lawsuit. In Sheeran’s London trial, the singer stated that the lawsuit is indicative of copyright litigation that goes too far, stifling creativity. The judge agreed, stating that Sheeran had ‘neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied’ the melody in Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue’s song Oh Why.
Although similarities between the two songs were recognized, the judge ultimately found significant differences and ruled that Chokri’s attorneys had failed to demonstrate that Sheeran had heard the song. Gaye’s family is not involved in the New York lawsuit against Sheeran, although Gaye’s estate successfully sued Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. over similarities between the song Blurred Lines and Gaye’s Got to Give it Up.
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