NEW YORK: On Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, jurors watched a video of Ed Sheeran performing a medley of his hit song Thinking Out Loud and Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On.
“We don’t allow dancing,” U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton told the seven-person jury.
Lawyers for the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 hit, used the video to support their claim that Sheeran, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Publishing owe them a portion of the earnings for copying the song.
Moreover, In his opening comments, heirs’ lawyer Ben Crump called the performance a “confession” by Sheeran.
Under questioning from Keisha Rice, another plaintiffs’ lawyer, Sheeran said many pop songs employ the same three or four chords and that he performs “mash-ups” of various songs at his shows.
“You could go from Let It Be to No Woman, No Cry and switch back,” Sheeran said, alluding to Beatles and Bob Marley songs. “If I had done what you’re accusing me of doing, I’d be quite an idiot to stand on a stage in front of 20,000 people and do that.”
Sheeran may face three lawsuits for the songs’ similarities.
In her opening remarks, Sheeran’s lawyer Ilene Farkas argued the two songs different and that the plaintiffs not permitted to “monopolise” a chord sequence used in many songs.
Sheeran became irritated when Rice interrupted his musical response. “I feel like you don’t want me to answer because you know that what I’m going to say is actually going to make quite a lot of sense,” he added. Sheeran will testify again in the defence case.
If the jury finds Sheeran guilty of copyright infringement, a second phase will decide his and his labels’ damages. The first experiment should last a week.
