Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Lawsuit Over Song “Shape Of You”

Ed Sheeran was granted a victory in his copyright battle over the 2017 single “Shape Of You,” when a U.K. judge found Sheeran and his co-writers of the song John McDaid and Steven McCutcheon not guilty of copying the 2015 song “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri or Sami Switch.

Chokri’s lawyer, Andrew Sutcliffe said the songs had an “indisputable similarity,” with the main point of contention being the vocal refrain “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I,” Sheeran uses in the “Shape Of You” chorus, which they argued was too similar to how Chokri sang “Oh why, Oh why, Oh why,” in his own song. Sutcliffe said Sheeran could have copied Chokri “consciously or unconsciously.” High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli did not agree with this assessment, and in his Wednesday ruling he said that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied “Oh Why.”

In a video statement, Sheeran spoke on behalf of himself and his co-writers saying, “I feel like claims like this are all too common now, and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking to court, even with no base in the claim.” Sheeran also argued that overlap is bound to happen in his genre of pop music because “There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify.”

Sheeran told the BBC that in response to these legal claims, he has been forced to start recording all of his songwriting sessions to be able to show artists that accuse them of copying. He mentioned that this incident has affected his creativity as well adding, “There’s the George Harrison point where he said he’s scared to touch the piano because he might be touching someone else’s note. There is definitely a feeling of that in the studio.”

The pop star has been accused of copying other music artists in the past. His single “Photograph” was accused of being a “note-for-note” copy of the chorus of the song “Amazing” by Matt Cardle. Sheeran settled this case out of court. He was also accused of copying parts of the Marvin Gaye classic “Let’s Get It On” for his song “Thinking Out Loud,” but the songwriter Ed Townsend’s estate eventually dropped the suit.