Ed Sheeran Slams ‘Baseless’ Copyright Claims After Winning Lawsuit Over ‘Shape of You’
English Pop superstar Ed Sheeran has won a High Court copyright battle in the United Kingdom over his 2017 hit Shape of You, a song with Dancehall sensibilities that went No. 1 in over 30 countries.
According to the Associated Press, a judge ruled on Wednesday that Sheeran and his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, had not plagiarised the 2015 song Oh Why by grime artist Sami Chokri.
Chokri, whose nom de guerre is Sami Switch, had claimed the “Oh I” hook in Sheeran’s track was “strikingly similar” to an “Oh why” refrain in his own track.
Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran had “neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied” Chokri’s song. He acknowledged there were “similarities between the one-bar phrase” in Shape of You and Oh Why, but said “such similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement” of copyright.
In a video posted to Twitter today, Sheeran said such ‘baseless’ claims “are way too common” and that the similarity between his song and Oh Why was a coincidence.
“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,” he said.
“It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry. 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,” he said.
There are currently four ongoing copyright lawsuits involving Jamaican artists and producers, namely producers Steely & Cleevie v. Despacito singer Luis Fonsi, Shenseea and Interscope v. Pupa Nas T, Etana v. VP Records, and Greensleeves v. Chris Brown and Sony.
Ed’s been dealing with a lawsuit recently and he wanted to share a few words about it all pic.twitter.com/hnKm7VFcor
— Ed Sheeran HQ (@edsheeran) April 6, 2022
Shape of You spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and has accumulated total sales of over 5 million units in the country as of July 2021. It is currently certified 9X Platinum by the BPI.
In the United States, it spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is currently certified Diamond by the RIAA for sales and streaming exceeding 10 million units.
Shape of You was a big hit in Jamaica and had also inspired a Shape of You (Major Lazer Remix) featuring Nyla and Kranium and Ishawna‘s Equal Rights.
In October 2021, Sheeran showed out for Ishawna‘s raunchy remix, during an interview with Qmusic Nederland, where he lauded the track’s viral quality, stating that of all the versions he’d heard, Ishawna’s oral demands were certainly the most entertaining.
One month later, Sheeran revealed that he had granted Ishawna clearance for her Equal Rights remix of Shape Of You allowing for its re-release on the original instrumental and that he and the Jamaican singer were teaming up a for new song.