London High Court Justice Zacaroli has ruled that Ed Sheeran has “neither deliberately nor subconsciously” copied any phrase from Sami Chokri’s “Oh Why”.
Ed Sheeran, the globally renowned British singer, has won a high-profile copyright battle involving his hit song “Shape of You,” which he released in 2017.
A judge found on Wednesday, that Sheeran did not plagiarize Sami Switch’s “Oh Why” in a London High Court ruling.
Sheeran along with other “Shape Of You’ co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steve McCutcheon, were accused of plagiarizing the 2015 song “Oh Why” by Switch and Ross O’Donoghue in a trial that took place last month.
Switch, whose real name is Sami Chokri, said Sheeran copied a crucial part of the song from 2015.
Justice Zacaroli noted in his decision that he was confident Sheeran did not intentionally or unintentionally replicate aspects of Switch’s “Oh Why.”
While there are “similarities” between the one-bar phrases in Switch’s song that repeats the words “Oh Why” and the repetition of “Oh I” in Sheeran’s song, the judge stated that such similarities are “only a starting point” for a copyright infringement claim and that the phrases in the songs have “significant differences.”
Sheeran addressed his followers on Instagram by saying, “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, and it’s really damaging to the songwriting industry. There are only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music and coincidences are bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released a day on Spotify, that is 22m songs a year, and there are only 12 notes that are available.”
Back in 2016, Sheeran was sued over his track “Photograph,” which was settled out of court, and he was accused more than once in 2017 over his super hit “Thinking Out Loud.”
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