Lisa Mugo
On Wednesday, Grammy Award winning artiste Ed Sheeran won a U.K. copyright case over his 2017 hit song ‘Shape of You’.
The song was linked to Sami Switch’s ‘Oh Why’ which was released back in 2015. Andrew Sutcliff, the lawyers of the writers of ‘Oh Why’ claimed that the two songs are very similar and that Ed Sheeran must have had ‘Oh Why’ at the back of his mind when he wrote ‘Shape of You’.
Sutcliff claimed that “Oh I, Oh I, Oh I” in the chorus of ‘Shape Of You’ was ‘strikingly similar’ to the line “Oh why, Oh why, Oh why” in Switch’s song.
Sheeran, together with his co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, denied claims that the songs were similar and added that he fairly credits the people who contribute to his music.
On Wednesday, High Court Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran did not copy ‘Oh Why’ when writing his hit song.
Sheeran even went ahead and posted on Twitter saying that such claims are damaging to the song writing industry.
“Whilst we’re obviously happy with the result, I feel like claims like this are way too common now and have become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim,” Sheeran said in a video posted on Twitter.
“It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry,” he added.
