Sheeran’s copyright win
ED SHEERAN has hit out at a “damaging” culture of “unwarranted” legal claims against songwriters after winning a High Court copyright battle over his track Shape Of You.
The singer said legal challenges are “way too common”, as a judge ruled his 2017 hit did not infringe another artist’s song.
Sheeran and his Shape Of You cowriters, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had faced accusations they ripped off 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
Giving a ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from Oh Why when writing Shape Of You.
The judge said arguments that Sheeran had previously heard Oh Why were “speculative”, and he rejected allegations the star is a “magpie” who “habitually copies and conceals the work of other songwriters”.
Sheeran and his co-authors originally launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright.
Two months later, Chokri – a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch – and O’Donoghue issued their own claim for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement”.
The pair alleged an “Oh I” hook in Shape Of You is “strikingly similar” to an “Oh Why” refrain in their own track. All three Shape Of You coauthors denied allegations of copying and said they did not remember hearing Oh Why before the legal fight.
Mr Justice Zacaroli dismissed Chokri’s counterclaim and granted a declaration to Sheeran and his fellow songwriters that they had not infringed the copyright in Oh Why.