7/7/2023 0 Comments Medialink ip“The lawyers are relying on juries’ ignorance of songwriting practice, and the natural tendency for most people who don’t know this field is to equate similarity with copyright infringement,” he says. “Getting an expert just to say that two songs both have a fade ending, there’s two of the same notes in a sequence, and they’re both sung by a male isn’t enough.”Īs Bennett says, the very nature of the complaints against Sheeran and many other copyright infringement cases comes down to focusing on similarities between songs without consideration that similarity may not be enough to prove a song was ripped off. But if ‘Blurred Lines’ opened Pandora’s box, I think ‘Stairway to Heaven’ closed it back,” Anderson previously said. “The ‘Blurred Lines’ case showed that if the Gaye family can successfully sue over a song where the notes aren’t the same, you could get sued on anything. Peter Anderson, who represented Zeppelin in their trial, told Rolling Stone in 2021 that he thought their case pushed back on the notion set within “Blurred Lines.” (Anderson declined to comment on the record this week regarding the Sheeran/Townsend case.) Howard King, who represented Robin Thicke and Pharrell in the “Blurred Lines” trial, tells Rolling Stone that while he agrees with the Sheeran jury’s decision, it’s not part of an overall shift on how these cases may result.Įd Sheeran and Luke Combs Sing 'Life Goes On' at 2023 ACM Awards Since then, however, there’ve been multiple other cases that ruled more favorably toward inspiration over infringement, including the famed “Stairway to Heaven” and “Dark Horse” trial that gave victories to defendants Led Zeppelin and Katy Perry. The ruling made artists more cautious about their work, looking to ensure their tracks couldn’t be interpreted as too similar to other pieces. The “Blurred Lines” decision, which ruled in favor of Marvin Gaye’s estate and declared the song had infringed on Gaye’s track “Got to Give It Up,” is one of the most notorious decisions in recent history for music copyrights. In some ways, this latest trial was a tie-breaker between other notable copyright trials over the past decade. During the trial, Sheeran played the “Thinking Out Loud” chords on his guitar to demonstrate his work to the jury and try to prove he didn’t take from “Let’s Get It On.” He also said during the trial that he would stop writing music if found liable of plagiarism. He added that the song was more reminiscent of Van Morrison. Sheeran’s infringement of Black artists, is merely another example of artists exploiting the genius and the work of Black singers and songwriters.”Ĭrump had previously described a video of Sheeran transitioning between “Let’s Get It On” and “Thinking Out Loud” as a “smoking gun,” proving the claims. “For far too long, Black artists have created, inspired and spread music all around the world,” Crump said. “And Ed Townsend’s family believes artists’, like Mr. As CBS News reported, Ben Crump, representing Townsend’s estate, said the case was about giving credit where needed and about ensuring Black artists’ work is recognized. The trial concludes six years of anticipation after the estate of Ed Townsend - who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye - sued Sheeran in 2016. I get dozens of calls from hopeful plaintiffs every year telling me one of their melodies appears in a Justin Bieber song and he must’ve copied it, but that’s just not true. “These cases are based on a glitch in music phenomenology. “Hopefully this could be the beginning of the end of these spurious lawsuits based on musical ignorance,” Bennett says. Joe Bennett, a forensic musicologist and professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, agrees, saying that the decision further pushes back on the notion that artists can take ownership over mere chord progressions. “I think a lot of people would be happy here a lot of people in music think the ‘Blurred Lines’ case didn’t come out the right way.” “It will give people a little bit more comfort in terms of feeling they might not get sued and lose at every turn,” says Audrey Benoualid, a partner at the law firm Myman Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobassar Younger and Light, one of the most prominent firms in the music business. With Sheeran coming away victorious in the much-publicized “Thinking Out Loud”/ “Let’s Get It On” trial, music copyright experts tell Rolling Stone they’re hopeful the decision will chill what they describe as frivolous lawsuits going forward, as the verdict tells those looking to sue that winning out isn’t so simple. Ed Sheeran won a copyright infringement trial on Thursday, and so has music itself, at least according to some music copyright experts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |