Ed Sheeran cleared of plagiarism of Marvin Gaye song

Sheeran stood up and hugged his legal team when the jury ruled that he had created his music “independently.” The singer said he was “happy” to have defeated copyright allegations that he said were “baseless”.

The heirs of Ed Townsend, co-writer of Gaye's hit song, filed the civil lawsuit alleging “striking similarities and obvious common elements” between the two songs.

This was the latest in a series of copyright cases that have left the music industry on edge and many songwriters paranoid about their own creative processes and their vulnerability to lawsuits.

Sheeran spent days testifying and trying to prove to the jury that the 1-3-4-5 chord progression in question is a staple of pop music that belongs to no one.

His legal team argued that Gaye e Townsend were not the first to compose a song with these chords, citing several Van Morrison songs that use this sequence and were released before 1973.

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