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The judge in Ed Sheeran’s copyright trial for his hit song Thinking Out Loud has announced the need for a trial by jury.
Sheeran is accused of using the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, instrumental and dynamic elements of Marvin Gaye’s classic song, Let’s Get It On, released in 1973, in his 2014 hit.
In the latest development, Judge Louis Stanton has decreed the need for a US$100 million ($152 million) jury trial.
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“There is no bright-line rule that the combination of two unprotectable elements is insufficiently numerous to constitute an original work,” said the judge, according to Billboard.
“A work may be copyrightable even though it is entirely a compilation of unprotectable elements.”
The lawsuit first began in 2016, when the the estate of the song’s late co-writer, Ed Townsend, sued Sheeran, though the claim was dismissed a year later.
But in 2018, the Townsend family sold a third of their shares in Let’s Get It On to Structured Asset Sales, after which they relaunched the suit for a reported $100 million.
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David Pullman, the owner of Structured Asset Sales, commented to Billboard that he was “pleased” that a jury will hear the case, saying that he “looks forward to more success in this case which involves the largest copyright infringement in history.”
This is not the only time the singer has been embroiled in copyright controversy.
Sheeran had previously undergone a plagiarism trial for his 2017 hit Shape of You eventually winning the trial in April and being awarded more than $1 million in legal fees.
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