Ed Sheeran being sued query

snerkler

snerkler

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I’m sure a lot of you will have read the Ed Sheehan’s being sued for copyright infringement from the Marvin Gaye song “Let’s get it on”, however every report I’ve read says that he’s copied the chord/harmonic progression of the track but chord progressions aren’t covered by copyright so how has it made it to trial?
 
snerkler said:
I’m sure a lot of you will have read the Ed Sheehan’s being sued for copyright infringement from the Marvin Gaye song “Let’s get it on”, however every report I’ve read says that he’s copied the chord/harmonic progression of the track but chord progressions aren’t covered by copyright so how has it made it to trial?
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If it means a few lawyers get rich…………
 
lindsay said:
IPR?
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They can only copyright certain aspects such as melody and lyrics, chord progressions are freely available and you hear the same ones regularly.

I can only assume there’s more to it but I find it odd that all reports say it’s about chord progressions :thinking:

I can’t say that I heard “Thinking out Loud” and thought that sounds like “Let’s Get It On” tbh, I hear many other tracks that have much more similarity to other tracks.
 
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"In 2015, Gaye's heirs won a $5.3 million judgment from a lawsuit claiming the Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams song Blurred Lines copied Gaye's Got To Give It Up."

I suspect they were using that money to pay lawyers for a fishing exercise. I'm pleased they caught nothing.
 
In the post by JR.."how music works" Damien Rheil quotes plagiarism by Radiohead for their song "Creep" from a song by (sung by) the Hollies "The Air That I Breathe'. I heard Creep for the first time on a US talent show recently and really liked it. I play the piano/keyboard and ":compose" I have a personal CD.... my keyboard (Roland G70) melodies using many intruments within it and I'm "sensitive" to chord changes which drew me to "Creep" I really liked the chord progression. For those into the music side it's G > B > C > Cm. That's it. After watching the above video I got up both songs.The chords are the same for "The Air That I Breathe"..it's just B7 instead of Bmajor. B7th has an edge but basically the same. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood,who co-wrote it in 1972 and The Hollies had a hit with it in 1974, successfully sued Radiohead. I recall Paul McCartney worrying that he'd heard his song "Yesterday" before and had subconciously used it but he hadn't. He said it came to him in a dream.

Hollies..The first plagiarised chord sequence starts with the vocals
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkUgpfZ3rjQ


Radiohead "Creep"
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkzRNyygfk
 
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I fail to understand why no-one has yet copyrighted the letter "e" - it would be a gold mine... :coat:
 
JohnC6 said:
In the post by JR.."how music works" Damien Rheil quotes plagiarism by Radiohead for their song "Creep" from a song by (sung by) the Hollies "The Air That I Breathe'. I heard Creep for the first time on a US talent show recently and really liked it. I play the piano/keyboard and ":compose" I have a personal CD.... my keyboard (Roland G7) melodies using many intruments within it and I'm "sensitive" to chord changes which drew me to "Creep" I really liked the chord progression. For those into the music side it's G > B > C > Cm. That's it. After watching the above video I got up both songs.The chords are the same for "The Air That I Breathe"..it's just B7 instead of Bmajor. B7th has an edge but basically the same. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood,who co-wrote it in 1972 and The Hollies had a hit with it in 1974, successfully sued Radiohead. I recall Paul McCartney worrying that he'd heard his song "Yesterday" before and had subconciously used it but he hadn't. He said it came to him in a dream.

Hollies..The first plagiarised chord sequence starts with the vocals
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkUgpfZ3rjQ


Radiohead "Creep"
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkzRNyygfk
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I believe they were sued for taking parts of the melody as well as the chord progression, as mentioned the latter (AFAIK) isn't copyrightable. Having just listened to them both I've heard songs that sound much more similar tbh, it's scary that you can be sued over something that has even the slightest resemblance. Thankfully none of my stuff will ever be mainstream :lol:
 
snerkler said:
I believe they were sued for taking parts of the melody as well as the chord progression, as mentioned the latter (AFAIK) isn't copyrightable. Having just listened to them both I've heard songs that sound much more similar tbh, it's scary that you can be sued over something that has even the slightest resemblance. Thankfully none of my stuff will ever be mainstream :LOL:
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Noted what you said re melody/chord progression. Yes, there are some stark similarities between songs. George Harrison was found guilty of plagiarising the Chiffons’ ‘He’s So Fine,’ for his song "My Sweet Lord" even though he said wasn’t thinking of the song when he wrote it.

Listen to the start of Queen's "It's a Hard Life" then go to the other box on the right with Pavarotti singing "Vesti la giubba", an aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci and then go to 1.57 on the time curser. I think Freddie Mercury acknowledged this because he was familiar with opera.


When you have 5 minutes (well, 17.45 to be precise..lol) here are 14 songs based on classical pieces and I see that it includes Freddie Mercury's "It's A Hard Life." It also includes Radiohead's Creep" but relates it to Chopin's Prelude in Em with no mention of the Hollies song. Also featured is "All By Myself" by Eric Carmen 1975..Second Movement of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Cm. He's used other Rachmaninov's pieces for his songs and had to pay 12% royalties to Rachmaninov's Estates.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknBXOSlFQs
 
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