Ed Sheeran awaits verdict over copyright court battle

Ed Sheeran has revealed the emotional and creative cost of being taken to court over plagiarism claims, revealing he now films all of his songwriting sessions, just in case.

Adele, Ed Sheeran, Dave and Dean 'Inflo' Josiah Cover lead nominations for the 2022 Ivor Novello Awards.

The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the song copied part of 2015’s “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.Sheeran took to Twitter on Wednesday and expressed relief at his legal victory in Britain, though he decried what he called a “culture” of baseless lawsuits intended to squeeze money out of artists eager to avoid the expense of a trial.“Whilst 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, even if there is no basis for the claim,” Sheerhan said in a video posted on Twitter.

Ed Sheeran has won a copyright battle in UK court over his 2017 hit “Shape of You.”

Grammy Award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran has won a U.K. copyright battle over the 2017 hit “Shape of You.”

LONDON -- Grammy Award-winning songwriter Ed Sheeran has won a U.K. copyright battle over the 2017 hit “Shape of You.’’The British pop star and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had denied allegations that the 2017 song copied part of 2015's “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.Sheeran and his co-writers said they did not remember hearing “Oh Why” before the court case.In a ruling on Wednesday, Judge Antony Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied a phrase from “Oh Why″ when writing his smash hit.“Shape of You” was the biggest-selling song in the U.K.

Ed Sheeran has won a copyright lawsuit over his hit single “Shape of You.”A U.K. High Court ruled on Wednesday that Sheeran had not plagiarised the 2015 song “Oh Why” by Sami Chokri.The verdict is the culmination of a four-year legal battle between Sheeran and songwriters Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, which included a 11-day trial in London in March.

Red Hot Chili Peppers are currently leading the pack in the race for this week’s Number One album in the UK.On Friday (April 1), the California icons released their 12th studio LP, ‘Unlimited Love’, marking their first full-length project since 2016’s ‘The Getaway’.The album sees the band reunite with guitarist John Frusciante, who left Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009. He last appeared on the group’s 2006 Number One album ‘Stadium Arcadium’.In the midweeks, the Official Charts Company has revealed that ‘Unlimited Love’ is outselling its closest competition – Ed Sheeran‘s ‘=’ – by 8:1.

Tributes have poured in overnight for Tom Parker, who died yesterday aged just 33 following a long battle with a brain tumour. 

Naman Ramachandran Concert for Ukraine, the fundraising event for the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal on Tuesday, saw £13.4 million ($17.6 million) raised from sponsorship, ad revenue, ticket sales and public donations. The two-hour event, which was live from the Resorts World Arena Birmingham, and broadcast exclusively on ITV and STV, featured performances from Anne-Marie, Becky Hill, Camila Cabello, Nile Rogers & Chic, Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé, Gregory Porter, Jamala, The Kingdom Choir, Manic Street Preachers, Nicola Benedetti, Snow Patrol and Tom Odell.A highpoint of the evening was a violin performance, which saw the recent viral video of young violinist Illia Bondarenko playing the Ukrainian folk song “Verbovaya Doschechka” from a basement shelter along with 94 violinists from around the world, joined up with a live performance in the room by Nicola Benedetti.

Announced last week, the two-hour benefit show will air March 29 on ITV in aid of the Disasters Emergency Committee‘s (DEC) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.After hearing of the concert’s announcement, the members of Antytila – who are currently fighting the Russians in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv – sent a video message to Ed Sheeran via Facebook to ask to play the concert remotely from their home country.The ‘Bad Habits’ hitmaker responded by telling the band: “I just watched your video this morning, thank you so much for sending it. Firstly I just wanted to say to all Ukrainians, I love you, I stand with you and I’m so proud to be playing this fundraising event next week.”However, Antytila have now been told they will not be permitted to perform as part of the benefit, with organisers explaining that the event must avoid association with the military.“Because we are standing with guns and helmets, we are soldiers, and this concert is not for soldiers but for helping civilian people,” singer Taras Topolya said in a video posted to social media.The singer said the band accepted the stance taken by the concert: “First of all we are musicians, helmets and body armour are temporary, but we understand the answer and we accept it.”He added: “The main thing is the people of the United Kingdom must stand with Ukraine.”@antytila_offic’s response “First of all, we’re musicians.

Ed Sheeran has finally revealed the exciting new releases he has up his sleeve.According to the English singer, an unexpected meet-up with J Balvin led to his latest project, even learning Spanish to fully immerse himself into the musical experience. So I want to share something with you that I’ve been working on. I met @JBALVIN in a gym in New York last year.It was just me and him very early in the morning.

Ed Sheeran, The Chemical Brothers and more have donated to a series of exclusive prize draws for the DEC's Ukraine appeal. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is holding a number of draws with prizes ranging from special meet and greets to VIP concert tickets to benefit the organisation's Ukraine humanitarian aid appeal.

Ed Sheeran and his co-writers in the ‘Shape of You’ copyright trial has said the legal row has been “deeply traumatising” for them.Ian Mill QC described the dispute as “terribly, terribly unfortunate” at a hearing in London yesterday (March 23) and argued that the case “should never have got to trial” [via Metro].The High Court was informed of Mill’s comments as the trial is expected to conclude today (March 22) and Mr Justice Zacaroli’s judgment to follow at a later date.Grime artist Sami Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch, is claiming that Sheeran’s 2017 hit infringes “particular lines and phrases” of his 2015 song ‘Oh Why’.

The ongoing song theft dispute in London’s high court over Ed Sheeran’s hit ‘Shape Of You’ got to the musicologist stage this week. Both sides in the dispute had expert musicologists analyse the similarities between Sheeran’s song and Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue’s earlier track ‘Oh Why’.

CMU’s Andy Malt and Chris Cooke review key events in music and the music business from the last week, including Ed Sheeran’s trip to the High Court in London in a bid to defeat a song-theft lawsuit filed against him and his musical collaborators in relation to his 2017 track ‘Shape Of You’, and the return of LimeWire – not as a piece of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, but as a music NFT marketplace.

Katy Perry has won a copyright infringement case against a rapper who claimed she stole his music to make her hit single ‘Dark Horse’.On Thursday (March 10) a federal appeals court refused to reinstate the original $2.8million verdict against Perry.In 2014, when Marcus Gray, who performs as Flame, alleged that the pop singer had copied his track ‘Joyful Noise’, jurors sided with him. However, in 2020 a judge overturned the original verdict.At the time, the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ copyright ruling was used as a precedent for overruling the initial verdict, noting that the notes Perry repeated during the song, were too simple to justify copyright protection.