Ed Sheeran has appeared in court in New York to deny he copied the tune for his song Thinking Out Loud.
Heirs of Marvin Gaye's co-writer Ed Townsend, who helped write his hit song Let's Get it On, have accused Ed Sheeran of stealing the melody to the song, and are arguing that he owes them money. Sheeran denies the charges and appeared in court in New York to defend his case.
A video from a previous Ed Sheeran concert where he mixes the lyrics of Let's Get it On and Thinking Out Loud was first big piece of evidence brought up in the trial. However, Sheeran argued that if he had plagiarised the song, he would be "quite an idiot" to mix them together on stage in front of a huge crowd.
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Speaking under oath, Sheeran said: "You could go from Let it Be to No Woman, No Cry and switch back... If I had done what you're accusing me of doing, I'd be a quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that."
Sheeran's lawyer also argued that both songs are distinct from each other and that no artist should be allowed to "monopolise" commonly used musical chord progressions.
His appearance in court comes just a year after he was cleared in a London court of claims he had copied another of his hit songs, Shape of You. He and is fellow songwriters were accused of ripping off the song Oh Why by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
This court case is expected to last at least a week, but if Ed Sheeran is found guilty of copyright infringement, it will be extended in order to determine how much he owes.
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