Ed Sheeran Slams “Damaging” Lawsuits Against Songwriters Amidst Copyright Case Victory

Over the past month, singer Ed Sheeran has been battling a copyright trial, accusing him of plagiarizing his 2017 hit song, “Shape of You” the song’s resemblance to their song, “Oh Why” Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue claim they had composed in 2015.

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Chokri and O’Donoghue claim Sheeran’s hook in which he repeats, “Oh, I” is too similar to be a coincidence to their song in which Chokri sings, “Oh, why”. To this day, Sheeran’s “Shape of You” has amassed over 5 billion views on YouTube and given the song’s popularity, if he had lost the lawsuit, would give Chokri and O’Donoghue a share in the song’s royalties.

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This isn’t the first time Ed Sheeran has been involved in a lawsuit regarding one of his songs. Two other songs, “Photograph” and “Thinking Out Loud” had been under fire for infringement claims. More recently Dua Lipa had been accused of plagiarizing her viral hit “Levitating”, and Katy Perry for her hit, “Dark Horse.”

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It was announced on April 6, that Ed Sheeran had won the lawsuit with the judge claiming there was no significant evidence to support the claims that he had plagiarised the song from Chokri and O’Donoghue. In a video statement released on Sheeran’s social media platforms he states that claims like these are “damaging to the song writing industry” stating “There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music. Coincidence is bound to happen”.