No Inspiration Without Payment: Ed Sheeran Sued For Two Songs Sounding Too Similar To Old Songs
from the that's-not-how-copyright-is-supposed-to-work dept
There's a fairly long history of lawsuits over songs sounding too "similar" -- from the lawsuit over George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" sounding too much like "He's So Fine" to the Verve getting sued by The Rolling Stones for the hit "Bittersweet Symphony" sounding similar to the Stones' "The Last Time." But after last year's verdict in favor of Marvin Gaye's estate in the "Blurred Lines" case, the floodgates seem to have opened, with a bunch of similar lawsuits over songs that sound vaguely similar, but not much more. A couple of months ago, in a bit of a surprise, Led Zeppelin actually won its case over whether or not it had infringed on someone's copyright in "Stairway to Heaven," so there's at least some hope that not every "similar sounding" song will face a copyright lawsuit -- but even then the arbitrariness of these decisions seems problematic.It's especially problematic when the songs are clearly different, even if one was inspired by the other, or was written as sort of an homage to the original. It used to be that this kind of building on the works of others was a sign of flattery and something people should be happy about. But with millions of dollars being thrown around thanks to statutory damages, big lawsuits seem to be the answer instead. Earlier this week, hit pop singer Ed Sheeran was hit with a new lawsuit also claiming that he infringed on an old famous Marvin Gaye tune, "Let's Get It On." This time, it's not the Gaye Estate that's suing (as in the "Blurred Lines" case), but rather the estate of a songwriter on that song, Ed Townsend. The accusation is that Sheeran's hit "Thinking Out Loud" infringes on "Let's Get It On." Here are both tracks:
Since no one else reporting on this has actually shared the filings, I thought I'd fix that. You can read it here or embedded below. There's not much detail in there other than the claim that "Thinking Out Loud" has copied "the heart" of "Let's Get It On." It claims that "the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic compositions" are "substantially and/or strikingly similar" between the two songs. They are, of course, demanding statutory damages, because why not?
Meanwhile, this is the second lawsuit of this nature against Sheeran in just the last few months. In early June, he was sued over another one of his hit songs, "Photograph," with the lawsuit claiming it was a note-for-note copy of the song "Amazing" by Matt Cardle (written by the plaintiffs in that lawsuit, Martin Harington and Thomas Leonard). In that case, again there are similarities between the two, but they're basically both just guitar ballads, not all that unlike tons of singer/songwriter guitar ballads with pretty basic progressions.
But, really, this whole focus on these kinds of lawsuits seems really damaging to the way music is created. Being inspired by other musicians or wanting to write something that "feels like" another artist is pretty standard. And it should never be copyright infringement. These are all different songs and they should stand and fall on their own power, not because of some stupid copyright claim. But, of course, thanks to the recording industry ranting on and on about "ownership" of "intellectual property," combined with the massive rewards for winning a copyright lawsuit (thanks to statutory damages), this is what we end up with -- a world where being creative in a manner that is inspired by someone else, or in homage to them, is called "theft" by some. That seems like it's going to create a massive chilling effect on musicians and songwriters and the way they create music.
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Filed Under: copyright, ed sheeran, ed townsend, homage, inspiration, let's get it on, marvin gaye, photograph, thinking out loud
Reader Comments
The First Word
“It really is, and always has been. Culture always builds on existing culture.
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
-- attributed to Mark Twain
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Wipe 'em all out
Yeah... we've fallen off the cliff - and there is no hope for a soft landing.
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I'm surprised PETA isn't suing him on behalf of a monkey.
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Too Similar ?
Which came first?
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An example of similarity
Was the movie theme music inspired by the one line from the hymn? I highly doubt it.
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Melancholy Elephants
And so it begins. For those that don't follow the link, it's a science fiction story (and a poignant one) about this exact situation.
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Re: An example of similarity
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Re: An example of similarity
I studied music in school and there was a saying derived from the idea of Seven Basic Plots for stories
"There are seven original melodies in the world, everything else is just derivation."
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I don't really hear the similarity on this one.
I've always thought that The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony" was a slowed down version of Honeymoon Suite's "New Girl Now" myself.
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Is our most excellent system really wasting time debating who owns materials released in 1971?
No matter how that is resolved, the actual natural (non-legal) truth is: that material has been stolen from the public domain. It should have been our property decades ago.
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"The Day the Music Business Died."
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"We made it to the top, someone kicked the ladder away will you?"
Short-sighted buffoons like this however seem determined to stop that process entirely, too focused on the potential profits to give a damn what it will mean to everyone else, including themselves if they try to make something and someone decides that they look like an easy source of money.
So what if the next generation is crippled in what they can make and how they can do it, too worried that something they make will be 'too similar' and therefore open them up to a lawsuit to actually make anything, the ones who already got their share of the pie by building upon the generation before them already got to the top, they don't need the ladder any more so screw the ones trying to climb up after them.
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layers of things
The Stairway to Heaven suit was a perfect example. There is a lot on the plate. Knowing that the cord / picking sequence is but a small part of the "original" song, and that the sequence in STH is just one of a number of variations on a similar cording structure makes it harder to show a true "rip off".
Sheehan, well... he has a bigger problem in both cases because the music in question isn't a single riff or a few seconds of a 10 minute song, but rather the whole song. It's not just a question of "feel" but also a question of structure, phrasing, or performance, and such. STH was a question of a single line, Sheehan is a question of a much more substantial replication.
Inspired by should never mean a duplicate of. If you want to cover the song, respect the original artist (something Zeppelin was very bad at too... back in the nasty days before proper copyright laws!).
It would be harder for a court to rule in Sheehan's favor on this one than the Zep case, and no, it's not about money (we wish it was that simple).
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The Verve used a sample of the Oldham Orchestra's symphonic rendition of "The Last Time" by the Rolling Stones. It didn't "sound similar," it was the song "The Last Time," just not the version the Stones recorded. As such, the case is a little convoluted because the Verve would have needed both the permission from the orchestra to use the recording, and permission from the Stones to use the underlying composition. (They would eventually be sued by both entities over royalty disputes.)
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Hemingway Estate Slam-Dunk Suit Against Bad Hemingway Contestants?
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Same goes for chords. To continue the above example, what you might call a C6 I would call an Am7. Again, neither of us is wrong. One way is definitely more conventional and more readily understood by your players, but that doesn't really make it more correct, just more expedient.
It's the intervals between all the notes that really matter. The same melody can be played in any key you want, and the pitch of the notes would change as a whole, but the feel of the melody wouldn't change much at all (within reason, of course). It's not important to know that a melody goes C-D-E, it's important to know that the melody goes [note]-[whole tone up]-[whole tone up]. But I think that kind of nuance would be hard to convey to a lay person. You'd basically have to send them to music theory classes before they could even comprehend what they're looking at.
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And then PETA will sue Herman and the Hermits for patent infringement on behalf of the reptiles as representatives of non-mammals over "No Milk Today". And the Vatican will get them over the "Hermit" trademark.
Man, those two are a dream team.
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I don't think that it is an accident that rap "music" has no recognizable melody.
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And that's why music of today generally sucks. I have to go back to 80s and 90s to find anything decent to listen to. Everything made after the 2000s is pure garbage, it's nothing but bubblegum pop shit.
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Two words: Andy Warhol
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All I know is that when I hear "Bittersweet Symphony" (1997) the lyrics to "New Girl Now" (1984) go off in my head, but that might not mean anything other than I'm growing old.
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You know that's what literally every generation says about music, right?
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Re: An example of similarity
There is also a (modern I think) hymn that includes a seven note phrase of the Halo: Combat Evolved theme, note for note. Not sure if coincidence.
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What are you saying, that it's because of copyright?
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Which means drum tracks like the one used in Aura Dione's 'Friends' (which Milli Vanilli used in 'Girl You now it's true' but which was originally mixed together by Eric B & Rakim for their song 'Paid In Full') are becoming less and less likely since there's just too many people to be asked (and paid) for permission...
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Re: "We made it to the top, someone kicked the ladder away will you?"
You mean like Satriani crying his heart out about Coldplay while 'stealing' from Cat Stevens?
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Yeah, nobody makes anything but bland pop tunes today, and they never *ever* made bubblegum crap in the 80s and 90s.
Oh wait, you're either deluded or lying, because neither of those is true! I'll trade you plenty of current bands for the girls and boy bands of those decades, and I grew up in the 80s...
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Funny, these discussions always bring arguments about relative quality of music, and the only thing that's ever correct is that it's so subjective that nobody's right or wrong.
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and
Talk about wanting your cake and eating it, you demand original music, and then complain that it does not sound like the music you grew up with.
(By the way you need to go back to the 60's and 70's to find good music).
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Thanks to this article I made two buys
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It really is, and always has been. Culture always builds on existing culture.
"Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
-- attributed to Mark Twain
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First they came for Ed Sheeran...
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Calling it "Country and Western" is a well-understood sign, among people who actually pay attention to country music, of someone who knows nothing about country music.
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AWESOME!!!
:D
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Just a sign you're over the hill.
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Just stop making music
I'm not sure whether to mark this post as sarcasm or not.
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