Opening arguments were made Tuesday in federal court in
Manhattan in the closely watched music copyright trial involving Ed Sheeran,
who was accused of copying his Grammy-winning ballad “Thinking Out Loud” from
Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On”.
اضافة اعلان
Sheeran testified Tuesday in the trial, which got underway
less than two weeks before he plans to release a new album and begin an
extensive North American stadium tour. The case, originally filed in 2017, has
been delayed multiple times.
The music industry is keenly interested in the outcome. Over
the past decade, the business has been rocked by a series of infringement suits
that have involved questions of just how much or how little of the work of pop
songwriters can be protected by copyright, and how vulnerable they are to legal
challenges.
The trend began in 2015 when a jury found that Robin Thicke
and Pharrell Williams, in their hit “Blurred Lines”, had infringed on the
copyright of another Gaye tune, “Got to Give It Up”, and they were ordered to
pay more than $5 million in damages. The case shocked many legal experts — and
musicians — who believed that Thicke and Williams were being penalized for
using basic musical building blocks, like harmonies and rhythmic patterns, that
had long been considered part of the public domain.
In 2020, an appeals court decision affirming Led Zeppelin’s
victory over a copyright challenge to its song “Stairway to Heaven” seemed to
steer case law back to more familiar territory. But plaintiffs are free to seek
relief if they feel their rights have been infringed, and jury trials over
music copyright can be especially unpredictable.
The lawsuit against Sheeran involves only the underlying
musical composition of the two songs — their melodies, chords and lyrics — and
not the specific recordings.
Here is a guide to what to expect during the trial.
Who are the plaintiffs?While the “Blurred Lines” suit was filed by Gaye’s family,
the plaintiffs in this case are heirs of Ed Townsend, a songwriter and producer
who collaborated with Gaye on his album “Let’s Get It On,” and who shares
writing credit with Gaye on the title track. (Townsend, who died in 2003, was
the primary songwriter of “Let’s Get It On,” earning two-thirds of the
royalties from it.)
The case was filed in 2017 by Townsend’s daughter, Kathryn
Townsend Griffin; his sister, Helen McDonald; and the estate of his former
wife, Cherrigale Townsend. Since then there have been a series of delays.
What was said in opening arguments?
In opening statements, Ben Crump, a lawyer for the
plaintiffs, urged the jury to use “common sense” in comparing the two songs and
said that the evidence in the case included what he described as “a smoking
gun”: a fan video from a concert which showed Sheeran performing a “mashup,” or
medley, in which he moved seamlessly between performing “Thinking Out Loud” and
“Let’s Get It On,” and back again.
“That concert video is a confession,” said Crump, who is
best known as a civil rights lawyer who represented the family of George Floyd.
Ilene Farkas, a lawyer for Sheeran, said in her opening
statement that the concert video does not prove copyright infringement and that
onstage, Sheeran frequently moves smoothly between his songs and those of many
other artists. She argued that Sheeran and his co-writer, Amy Wadge, had
created “Thinking Out Loud” independently, without copying, and that the
similarities between the songs are commonplace ingredients that are found in
numerous songs and free for any musician to use.
“Ms. Griffin does not and cannot own these common musical
elements,” Farkas said.
The first witness, called just before noon, was Griffin
Townsend, the daughter of Townsend. She praised Sheeran as “a great artist with
a great future” and said she had brought the case reluctantly.
“I have to protect my father’s legacy,” she said.
What did Ed Sheeran say?Sheeran testified that he and a collaborator had written
“Thinking Out Loud” based on their own experiences.
“Yes, Amy Wadge and I wrote the song ‘Thinking Out Loud,’”
Sheeran testified, explaining that they created the song, about holding on to
romance throughout a long life, after seeing the affection between his aged
grandparents.
After the jury saw the video showing Sheeran moving between
“Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On,” a lawyer for the plaintiffs, Keisha
Rice, asked him about it.
He said that he frequently performs such “mashups” in
concert, which he said was possible because many pop songs involve only a
handful of chords.
“Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs,” Sheeran said.
“I’m just mashing up a song with another song,” he added.
What parts of the songs are in dispute?A quirk of the law restricts which aspects of “Let’s Get It
On” (1973) are under copyright. For many songs made before 1978, only the
contents of the sheet music submitted to the Copyright Office (known as the
“deposit copy”) are protected. With “Let’s Get It On,” that notation was
skeletal: just chords, lyrics and a vocal melody. Other key aspects of the
song, like its bass line and signature opening guitar riff, were absent.
That means that the lawsuit primarily comes down to the
chord progressions of the two songs, which are nearly — but not entirely —
identical.
Both songs are based on a sequence of four chords in an
ascending pattern, but on “Thinking Out Loud” the second chord in the
progression is slightly different from the one used in “Let’s Get It On.” (A
musicologist retained by the plaintiffs acknowledged the difference in an
analysis submitted to the court but called the two chords “virtually
interchangeable.”)
The case may hinge on just how distinctive this chord
progression is. Sheeran’s lawyers argue that the chords are generic building
blocks and are fair game for any musician. In filings with the court, Sheeran’s
musicologist notes more than a dozen songs, including hits like the Seekers’
“Georgy Girl” and Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” used the same basic sequence
before “Let’s Get It On.” A guitar textbook submitted in evidence cites it as a
standard progression that can be used by any musician to write a song.
The plaintiffs argue that even if the chords are public
domain, the specific way they were used in “Let’s Get It On,” including the
song’s syncopated rhythmic pattern, is original enough in its “selection and
arrangement” of those elements to be protected by copyright.
What are the stakes?After the “Blurred Lines” verdict, musicians and legal
scholars expressed concerns that the case had muddied the commonly understood
rules about what aspects of music could be owned by an individual songwriter
and what were free for any musician to use. There was an uptick in music
copyright claims, and some songwriters reported second-guessing themselves in
the studio to make sure their compositions were distinct.
The Led Zeppelin case changed that trajectory, with its ruling
that some elements of creative works were so commonplace that only “virtually
identical” versions infringed on copyright. Some experts say they are worried
that if Sheeran loses, further disruption could ensue.
Townsend’s heirs say they are protecting his work against
another song that stole its musical “heart.”
Has Sheeran faced copyright cases before?Yes. In 2016, the two songwriters of “Amazing,” which was
performed by Matt Cardle, a winner of the British TV competition “The X
Factor,” sued Sheeran, saying he copied aspects of their song for his hit
“Photograph.” The case was settled a year later, and the writers of “Amazing”
were added to the credits of “Photograph.”
Last year, Sheeran successfully defended himself at trial in
Britain in an infringement case involving another of his hits, “Shape of You”.
Afterward, Sheeran spoke in personal terms about the toll of defending against
such accusations and said that the flood of recent cases was “really damaging
to the songwriting industry.”
“There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop
music,” Sheeran said in a video posted to Instagram. “Coincidence is bound to
happen if 60,000 are being released every day on Spotify.”
He added, “This really does have to end.”
Read more Trending
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
