Ed Sheeran Settles $20 Million Copyright Lawsuit
- 7 years ago
Ed Sheeran has dodged a bullet.
According to the Hollywood Reporter the rising singer-songwriter has reached a settlement in a twenty million dollar copyright lawsuit over his 2014 hit song “Photograph.”
Sheeran and Snow Patrol co-writer Johnny McDaid were accused of making the track a note-for-note copy of a song called “Amazing” written by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard seven years ago.
In documents that included musical note comparison and chord breakdowns of the two songs, the writers claimed the “Photograph” chorus shares 39 identical notes with “Amazing” and claimed the similarities are instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer.
The lawsuit says, “This copying is, in many instances, verbatim, note-for-note copying, makes up nearly one half of Photograph, and raises this case to the unusual level of strikingly similar copying.”
Sheeran and company was served papers in 2016 and a judge has recently dismissed the case after an agreement had been reached between the parties. The terms of the deal have yet to be released but Ed must be satisfied that this battle didn’t get any larger.
According to the Hollywood Reporter the rising singer-songwriter has reached a settlement in a twenty million dollar copyright lawsuit over his 2014 hit song “Photograph.”
Sheeran and Snow Patrol co-writer Johnny McDaid were accused of making the track a note-for-note copy of a song called “Amazing” written by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard seven years ago.
In documents that included musical note comparison and chord breakdowns of the two songs, the writers claimed the “Photograph” chorus shares 39 identical notes with “Amazing” and claimed the similarities are instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer.
The lawsuit says, “This copying is, in many instances, verbatim, note-for-note copying, makes up nearly one half of Photograph, and raises this case to the unusual level of strikingly similar copying.”
Sheeran and company was served papers in 2016 and a judge has recently dismissed the case after an agreement had been reached between the parties. The terms of the deal have yet to be released but Ed must be satisfied that this battle didn’t get any larger.