Ed Sheeran was found not liable Thursday in Manhattan federal court on a copyright claim alleging that he copied key elements from the Marvin Gaye ’70s hit “Let’s Get It On” for his own “Thinking Out Loud.”
The verdict that cleared him of copyright infringement came after just a few hours of deliberation Thursday, wrapping up a trial that lasted just under two weeks.
Standing outside the courtroom, Sheeran read a statement for reporters that made it clear how frustrated he felt at being accused of plagiarism and having the case reach trial.
“It looks like I’m not going to have to give up my day job after all,” Sheeran said, alluding to a statement he’d made on the stand earlier this week suggesting that he would feel compelled to quit music if the verdict went against him.
“We need songwriters and the writing community to come together to bring back common sense,” Sheeran said. “These claims must be stopped so the creative process can carry on and we can all get back to making music. And at the same time we absolutely need trusted individuals, real experts, to help support the process and protect copyright.”
Saying that he had been forced to miss his grandmother’s funeral due to the case, Sheeran told reporters, “I will never get that time back.” The funeral, which took place in Ireland, was Wednesday.
The Associated Press reported that after the verdict was read, Sheeran mouthed the words “thank you” to the jury and then spent about 10 minutes talking with the plaintiffs, including Kathryn Townsend Griffin, the daughter of “Let’s Get It On” co-writer Ed Townsend, as they “hugged and smiled with each other.”
The jury had officially begun deliberations after closing arguments Wednesday evening, although, since it was after 5 p.m., the judge held them just long enough for a get-acquainted session before sending them home for the night.
U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton had sent the Manhattan jury into deliberations with a pointed admonition: “Independent creation is a complete defense, no matter how similar that song is.”
Stanton’s instructions left a high bar in the jury’s minds for just how much evidence the plaintiffs’ attorneys needed to have established to prove that Sheeran and his co-writer actually copied Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” when they wrote the 2014 pop hit “Thinking Out Loud.” The case was filed by heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 song.
Stanton told jurors that the lawyers for the heirs of Gaye’s co-writer, Ed Townsend, needed to “prove by a preponderance of the evidence… that Sheeran actually copied and wrongfully copied ‘Let’s Get It On’” — as opposed to the coincidental, negligible similarities argued by Sheeran’s attorneys.
In closing arguments, Sheeran attorney Ilene Farkas referred back to the other side’s contention that the singer’s concert mashup of the two songs constituted “a smoking gun” and “a confession.” Said Farkas, “He did a mashup one night. That’s a plaintiff’s confession, their smoking gun?… Simply put: the plaintiff’s ‘smoking gun’ was shooting blanks.”
Sheeran and his co-writer on “Thinking Out Loud,” Amy Wadge (who was not named as a defendant in the suit), both testified during the trial that they had written the song quickly in a spontaneous afternoon session without any discussion of “Let’s Get It On,” prompted by thinking about older relatives and the topic of having love last into old age. Similarities in lyrics or melody were not alleged by the plaintiffs.
Before the case was left with the jury, Sheeran attorney Ilene Farkas told the jurors in a closing argument that similarities in chords or rhythm — versus melody and lyrics — were “the letters of the alphabet of music… These are basic musical building blocks that songwriters now and forever must be free to use, or all of us who love music will be poorer for it,” Farkas said.
Keisha Rice, another attorney for the plaintiffs, argued in return that the case hinged on “the way in which these common elements were uniquely combined.”
Sheeran had claimed in testimony earlier this week that he would quit the industry if found guilty. “If that happens, I’m done, I’m stopping,” he said. “I find it really insulting to devote my whole life to being a performer and a songwriter and have someone diminish it.”
Final testimony on Wednesday had found a musicologist called by the defense playing orchestral recordings of the 1960s pop hit “Georgy Girl” for the courtroom to demonstrate that it was one of many songs pre-dating “Let’s Get It On” that used the same chords and rhythm found in the Gaye and Sheeran hits. In cross-examination, an attorney for the Townsend heirs countered that the chords must be rare indeed if a song that supposedly obscure was being cited to defend their common usage. Sheeran’s attorney begged to differ about the obscurity of “Georgy Girl” or other songs mentioned but added that, regardless, “What matters is that ‘LGO’ (‘Let’s Get It On’) did not do it first.”
The verdict will put some wind into Sheeran’s sails as, coincidentally, this week marks the release of both his new album and a Disney+ documentary series.
The music industry at large is expected to welcome the jury’s verdict, with many feeling that a previous case that went the other way — a lawsuit contending that Robin Thicke’s hit “Blurred Lines” had infringed on the copyright for Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” — would have a chilling effect on songwriters exercising their creativity, especially if further such lawsuits went against songwriters. Although both cases involved Gaye songs, the lawyers and plaintiffs were not the same in the two cases.