Ed Sheeran in court over hit song copyright claim – High Court trial
Pop sensation Ed Sheeran has told the High Court he doesn’t “borrow” ideas from unknown songwriters without credit.
Sheeran is accused of copying parts of his hit song Shape Of You – two songwriters are making the claims.
The lawyer for Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue is claiming Sheeran treated them differently because they are lesser-known songwriters than the other famous writers Sheeran has worked with.
The claim has been denied by Sheeran who told the court he had cleared parts of the song with “lots” of unknown artists.
Shape of You was released in 2017 and stayed at number one in the UK for a massive 14 weeks – making it the best-selling song of the year globally.
The two songwriters claim the song’s hook is similar to part of their track Oh Why – released under the name Sami Switch in 2015. Furthermore, their barrister Andrew Sutcliffe QC claimed Sheeran “borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t”.
The prosecution claimed that Sheeran is a “magpie” who lifts other people’s work without credit, saying he has often shared credit with lesser-known artists and a song that sampled an “unknown composer’s” work from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Sheeran denied the claims he is a “magpie” – he said: “All those examples are not famous artists that we’ve cleared songs with and that’s what I have to say on that,” he told the court.
Sheeran is in court in a smart black suit and appears “firm, determined and just a little bit irritated on the stand” (BBC). He is expected to testify into the evening.
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