Sheeran accused of ‘magpie’ songwriting

ED Sheeran is a “magpie” who allegedly “borrows” ideas from other artists to use in his songs, the High Court has heard in a copyright trial over his hit Shape Of You.

The singer is involved in a legal battle with two songwriters who claim the 2017 hit rips off parts of their track Oh Why, with Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue alleging Shape Of You infringes “particular lines and phrases” of their composition.

Mr Sheeran and his co-authors on the song, Steven McCutcheon and John McDaid, began legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr

O’Donoghue’s copyright. Two months later in July 2018, Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue issued their own claim for “copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement”.

The trial over the copyright dispute, expected to last three weeks, began in central London on Friday. Mr Sheeran attended the hearing, wearing a dark suit and a tie.

Andrew Sutcliffe QC, for Mr Chokri and Mr O’Donoghue, said the question at the heart of the case is “How does Ed Sheeran write his music?” and whether he “makes things up as he goes along” in song writing sessions. The barrister said: “Or is his song writing process in truth more nuanced and less spontaneous... involving the collection and development of ideas over time which reference and interpolate other artists. This is the defendants’ case.

“Mr Sheeran is undoubtedly very talented, he is a genius. But he is also a magpie. He borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t.” Mr Sheeran’s lawyers previously told the High Court the singer and his cowriters have no recollection of having heard the song Oh Why before the legal row and “vehemently deny” the copying allegations.