Speaking out after the verdict, the 'Thinking Out Loud' hitmaker points out that 'coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify.'
- Apr 7, 2022
AceShowbiz - Ed Sheeran has finally ended his years-long legal fight over "Shape of You". On Wednesday, April 6, the British singer/songwriter came out victorious in the copyright lawsuit by grime artist Sami Switch.
In a 2018 lawsuit, Sami accused him of plagiarizing his 2015 song "Oh Why". However, London High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled on Wednesday that Ed "neither deliberately nor subconsciously" copied "Oh Why" when he wrote "Shape of You" in 2016.
According to BBC, the judge said that while there were clear similarities between the songs, "such similarities are only a starting point for a possible [copyright] infringement." He also pointed out that there were "differences between the relevant parts" of the songs.
The judge added that there was only a "speculative foundation" for the defence's case that Ed had heard Chokri's song before writing "Shape of You". "I find, as a matter of fact, that he had not heard it," he said.
After the judge announced the verdict, Ed quickly took to his social media account to address the victory. "While we're obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court," the "Perfect" hitmaker said in a video message on Instagram.
"Even if there's no base for the claim. It's really damaging to the songwriting industry," he stressed. "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. That's 22 million songs a year and there's only 12 notes that are available."
The chart-topping singer continued, "I don't want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered by both sides of this case, but I just want to say that I'm not an entity." He noted, "I'm not a corporation. I'm a human being. I'm a father. I'm a husband. I'm a son. Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience and I hope with this ruling it means in the future baseless claims like this can be avoided."
Served as the second single off the singer's third studio album, "รท (Divide)", "Shape of You" bowed atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track additionally became the U.K.'s highest-selling track in 2017.
