Plagiarism allegations against Ed Sheeran

Last Thursday, a US judge has ruled that a jury has to decide whether Ed Sheeran is guilty of plagiarism for using parts of Marvin Gaye’s "Let's Get It On" in his song "Thinking Out Loud" from the album "X" (spoken "Multiply").

Ed Sheeran requested to dismiss the lawsuit but the judge found "substantial similarities between several of the two works' musical elements".

Indeed at least the two songs have a very similar rhythm. But the question the jury has to answer is whether the harmonic rhythm of "Let's Get It On" was deserving of copyright protection or whether it was too common.

Due to another song of the same album, "Photograph", there was a lawsuit with Matt Cardle who accused Ed Sheeran of plagiarism related to his song "Amazing". The parties agreed on a settlement whose content is not known by the public.

Sheeran had also been accused of plagiarism over a song of his album "÷" (spoken "Divide"), "Shape Of You". He later admitted to have used elements of the TLC song "No Scrubs". Furthermore the beginning of the song reminds the beginning of Tracy Chapman's "Mountain O' Things". Some also hear similarities to Sia's hit "Cheap Thrills".

/TWA