‘I hope with this ruling, it means in the future, baseless claims like this can be avoided,’ Sheeran said in a video.
For years now, Ed Sheeran has been dealing with a copyright case over alleged plagiarism on “ Shape Of You .” Now, it’s finally over: This morning’s verdict was ruled in favor of Sheeran, co-writer Johnny McDaid, and producer Steve McCutcheon, NME reports. In the ruling, Justice Zacaroli declared Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from Sami Switch’s “Oh Why” when writing “Shape Of You.” They also noted that while the song have similarities, “such similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement” of copyright. Now that the trial is finally over, Sheeran has spoken out. He said in a minute-long video shared on Instagram a few hours ago: “Hey guys. Me, Jonny, and Steve have made a joint statement that will be press released on the outcome of this case, but I wanted to make a small video to talk about it a bit because I’ve not really been able to say anything whilst it’s been going on. While we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement would be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there’s no base to the claim, is really damaging to the songwriting industry. There’s only so many notes and very few cords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That’s 22 million songs a year and there’s only 12 notes that are available. I don’t want take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered from both sides of this case, but I just want to say I’m not an entity, I’m not a corporation: I’m a human being, I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a son.
