Ed Sheeran lawsuit

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 ...

The singer said he always credited other artists and told the court he had never heard the Oh Why song he was accused of ripping off. 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. Ed Sheeran has won a copyright case over his 2017 hit Shape Of You.

The songwriter slammed what he described as a "culture" of baseless lawsuits intended to squeeze money out of artists eager to avoid the expense of a trial.

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British singer 'neither deliberately nor subconsciously' copied a phrase from song by Sami Chokri, judge says.

There is an impact on both us and the wider circle of songwriters everywhere.” Sheeran also said his reputation had been sullied by the allegations. This really does have to end.” They said the case had come at a cost to “creativity” and their mental health. The judge said that while there were “similarities” between the one-bar phrase that repeats the words “Oh why” in Chokri’s song and the repetition of “Oh I” in Sheeran’s, such similarities are “only a starting point” for a copyright infringement claim, and there are also “significant differences” between the phrases in the songs. “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.”