Ed Sheeran-Marv Gaye pyright trial to beg New York | Ed Sheeran | The Guardian

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* MARVIN GAYE ON YOUTUBE

Aud available</tle><path d="M6 0C2.68573 0 0 2.68573 0 6V8.73736C0 10.5187 1.48129 12 3.26262 12H3.78785V11.0578C4.2899 10.8595 4.60907 10.3691 4.60907 9.8323V7.64241C4.60907 7.10556 4.28989 6.61524 3.78785 6.41698V5.47476H3.26262C2.39306 5.47476 1.62721 5.79438 1.05047 6.32323V6C1.05047 3.29202 3.29202 1.05047 6 1.05047C8.70797 1.05047 10.9495 3.29202 10.9495 6V6.32323C10.3728 5.79438 9.6069 5.47476 8.73736 5.47476H8.21216V6.41698C7.71013 6.61524 7.39092 7.10555 7.39092 7.64241V9.8323C7.39092 10.3692 7.71012 10.8595 8.21216 11.0578V12H8.73736C10.5187 12 12 10.5187 12 8.73736V6C12 2.68573 9.31422 0 6 0Z" fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd"></path></svg></div><span class="styl-module--text--b98">Listen to this story</span></div><iame height="90" width="100%" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-orig allow-popups" scrollg="no" tle="Embedd Frame" src=" allow="toplay *; encrypted-media *; clipboard-wre; toplay; fullscreen; picture--picture"></iame></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><div></div></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>One day 1973, Edward Townsend, a sger-songwrer who’d had a mor h wh the 1958 ballad “For Your Love,” ved a iend, the R. & B. superstar Marv Gaye, to his home Los Angel, to hear some new tun. Stg at the piano, Townsend played a four-chord progrsn the key of E-flat major while sgg a melody that harked back to his doo-wop days. Townsend, then forty-three, had recently been released om rehab, and the song was a plea to a higher power to help him stay sober. “I’ve been really try’ baby, try’ to hold back this feelg for so long” was one of the l.</p><p>Gaye, who was sufferg om wrer’s block after the huge succs of “What’s Gog On,” for Motown Rerds, 1971, heard his iend’s song as a hymn to sex. Together, they created “Let’s Get It On.”</p><p>Motown’s mic-publishg pany, Jobete, took fifty per cent of the song’s pyright. Gaye and Townsend agreed to spl their share of the posn’s future earngs. Gaye rerd the song L.A., March, 1973, wh members of the Funk Brothers, Motown’s hoe band, who add the wah-wah guar troductn and the song’s unniable groove, which the send and fourth chords are anticipated—slightly ont of the beat. Gaye, addn to his soarg vol, played keyboard on the rerd. The song, Gaye’s first No. 1, was one of the biggt hs of the year. It beme a foundatnal track the quiet storm of seventi R. & B. and soul, and has remaed an evergreen—a steady earner.</p><p>“Let’s Get It On” lnched a new phase Gaye’s reer; four years later, his song “Got to Give It Up” also reached No. 1. Before his ath, a filici by Marv Gaye, Sr., 1984, Gaye had a fal smash wh “Sexual Healg.”</p><p>Townsend’s reer peaked wh “Let’s Get It On.” He fell back to alhol abe, acquired a e hab, and end up livg on the streets of Los Angel. He eventually beat his addictns, and, near the end of his life, voted himself to helpg others on the street. He died 2003, at the age of seventy-four.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>In Febary, 2014, an English sger-songwrer named Amy Wadge vised the pop star <a href=">Ed Sheeran</a> at his home Suffolk. Wadge was an old iend and a equent llaborator. Sheeran’s paternal grandfather had recently died, and his maternal grandmother was a wheelchair, followg ncer surgery. Sheeran and Wadge had a long talk that eveng about endurg love.</p><p>Sheeran exced himself to shower before dner wh his parents, who live nearby, and Wadge picked up one of his atic guars (a gift om Harry Styl) and began stmmg a four-chord progrsn D major. Sheeran heard when he me out of the shower, and lled out, “We need to do somethg wh that!”</p><p>After dner, Wadge and Sheeran returned home and ntued wrg Sheeran’s kchen. The first le, “When your legs don’t work like they ed to,” referred to his grandmother’s ndn. By midnight, “Thkg Out Loud” was fished. Sheeran rerd the song, which the send and fourth chords are anticipated, jt time to clu on his send album, “Multiply.”</p><p>As a wrer, Sheeran is known for his speed and facily. He n toss off four or five songs a day when he’s rerdg an album. His EP “No. 5 Collaboratns Project” led to a al wh Atlantic Rerds, a Warner Mic label, when he was neteen. He wr ballads as well as bangers; he also raps. He has llaborated wh artists cludg <a href=">Taylor Swift</a>, Ra Ora, and <a href=">Jt Bieber</a>. His songs are popular partly bee they are so accsible. It’s as if you already know them.</p><p>Sheeran ually performs solo wh a guar—whout stume chang, dancers, or pyrotechnics—backed only by looped tracks that he mak wh a pedal as he plays. The two-year-long tour for his 2019 album, “Divi,” took more than seven hundred and seventy-five ln dollars, makg the send-hight-grossg tour of all time. Now, at thirty-two, he is one of the wealthit people the U.K.</p><p>“Thkg Out Loud,” released September, 2014, was one of the first songs to be streamed half a billn tim on Spotify; has sce passed 2.2 billn streams. It won the 2015 Grammy for Song of the Year, and s succs shot Sheeran to the th air of the world’s top hmakers. The song also beme a favore at his ncerts.</p><p>In a YouTube vio of a Sheeran show Zurich November, 2014, the artist, playg an electric guar, smoothly transns om “Thkg Out Loud” to “Let’s Get It On” and back to “Thkg,” whout changg chords or the harmonic rhythm—the synpated nce at which chords are played. He s a b mischievoly. The crowd lov .</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Most pop songs are ma out of other pop songs. Many are nstcted on three- or four-chord progrsns, and have a near-intil blueprt—tro, verse, chos, bridge, outro. Other than words and melody, not much a posn is protected by pyright. As the Atralian edy tr Axis of Awome monstrat a vio that went viral, any number of pop songs n f si the same four chords. For this reason, the property l of popular mic are hard to draw. Inspiratn, imatn, homage, and pastiche are all at play. Often, the trick is to sound new and old at the same time. But at what pot do fluence and terpolatn bee appropriatn and plagiarism?</p><p>In 2019, the hmaker Pharrell Williams spoke wh the producer Rick Rub, for a filmed nversatn about creativy. Williams scribed his reactn to hearg a song that mak him feel somethg he hasn’t felt before: “I’m gog to have to reverse engeer the feelg orr to get to the chord stcture.” He did jt that wh “<a href=">Blurred L</a>,” his 2013 h wh Rob Thicke, for which he seemed to metabolize almost every aspect of Marv Gaye’s 1977 h “Got to Give It Up,” cludg the crowd nois and the wbell.</p><div class="styl-module--picture--67c26 styl-module--rtoon--7768e"><div class="styl-module--pictureContaer--433b0"><div class="styl-module--img--627c9"><div style="--aspect:74.1015625%" class="styl-module--ntaer--7d668 styl-module--haveAspect--ba25c"><picture><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt=""/></picture></div></div><div class="styl-module--ptnCred--721b5 styl-module--rtoon--7768e"><span class="styl-module--ptn--88494">“Sir, did you orr the special meal?”</span><span class="styl-module--cred--ba6c3"> <!-- -->Cartoon by Peter Kuper</span></div></div></div><p>But, acrdg to a jury Los Angel, Williams went too far. In 2015, found that the posers of <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_2--dc063">“Blurred L”</span></span> had illegally pied <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_2--dc063">Gaye’s song.</span></span> The songwrers were ultimately forced to pay the Gaye fay $5.3 ln, and to share half the song’s future publishg royalti. The verdict was a victory for the pyright attorney Richard Bch. Afterward, more than two hundred producers and other people the mic bs signed an amic brief predictg that, if the verdict was upheld, they would be forced to work “always wh one foot the rerdg stud and one foot the urtroom.” It was upheld anyway, a 2–1 vote, 2018. The dissentg judge on the Nth Circu Court of Appeals, Jacquele Nguyen, scribed the lg as “a vastatg blow to future micians and posers everywhere,” bee allowed “the Gay to acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style.”</p><p>Many people rrectly predicted that the “Blurred L” lg would trigger a wave of ivolo gement s. “I n’t tell you how many lls we get after the Grammys,” Judh Fell, who was the Gaye fay’s expert milogist the “Blurred L” se, told me. “Mostly om lawyers wantg to see if their client’s claim of gement is wnable.”</p><p>Taylor Swift, the Weeknd, and Jt Bieber are only a few of the artists who have been subject to recent allegatns of gement. The posers of Dua Lipa’s 2020 h <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_3--2f0bc">“Levatg”</span></span> are beg sued on both asts: In Los Angel, the reggae band Artikal Sound System is claimg that the song pied s 2017 track <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_3--2f0bc">“Live Your Life.”</span></span> In the Southern District of New York, L. Rsell Brown and Sandy Lzer believe that <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_3--2f0bc">“Levatg”</span></span> g on two songs they wrote, <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_3--2f0bc">“Wiggle and Giggle All Night,”</span></span> om 1979, and <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_3--2f0bc">“Don Diablo,”</span></span> om the followg year.</p><p>Two fluential cisns California’s Nth Circu the past few years have repaired some of the “Blurred L” damage. In 2020, the appeals urt nfirmed a jury’s verdict that Led Zeppel’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_4--577ed">“Stairway to Heaven”</span></span> did not ge on <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_4--577ed">“Ts,”</span></span> by the late-sixti rock band Spir, bee the scendg A-mor figure “Ts” nsisted of “mon mil elements” that n’t be pyrighted. In 2020, a district judge Los Angel overturned a verdict that found Katy Perry’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_5--8d429">“Dark Horse”</span></span> had ged on eight not om <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_5--8d429">“Joyful Noise,”</span></span> an obscure song by the Christian artist Flame. The judge’s cisn was upheld on appeal.</p><p>This sprg, a high-stak pyright trial took place New York Cy. The issue Griff v. Sheeran was whether Sheeran and Wadge had illegally pied om <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_1--1ac75">“Let’s Get It On”</span></span> creatg <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_1--1ac75">“Thkg Out Loud.”</span></span> The larger issu were how much songwrers like Sheeran should be allowed to borrow om earlier works, and the opaque and antiquated procs by which the law term what part of a pop song the poser actually owns.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Mic pyright, which beme law the Uned Stat 1831, allows posers to tablish the “met and bounds” of their tellectual property, jt as mechanil ventors do obtag patents. But a patent is granted only after examers have termed, by way of an vtigatn, that an ventn is tly new and eful. A mic pyright is more like a virtual bber stamp that a mician gets tomatilly as soon as a song is “fixed a tangible medium of exprsn.” If the song is a h and the mician is sued—bee “where there’s a h, there’s a wr,” as an old adage go— is up to the urts to figure out how origal the work is.</p><p>Copyright mak mercially viable to be an artist. But paters n’t claim ownership of a lor, and songwrers n’t monopolize not or, for that matter, mon chord progrsns, mos, or rhythms. A poser is entled to own only a particular exprsn or arrangement of a mil ia, not the ia self. (The ncept of an arpegg, or of unterpot, nnot be pyrighted.) The qutn is how to legally separate the two. The law, which reprents the Apollonian si of human experience—the ratnal, analytil, and tellectual—is a leaky sieve for ntag the Dnysian elements of mic: the irratnal, abstract, and emotnal parts.</p><p>“Songwrers almost never steal melodi om one another on purpose,” Joe Bent, a profsor of forensic milogy at Berklee College of Mic, told me. “In almost every se, the pyg is advertent.” Still, outright theft do happen—pare Johnny Cash’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_7--b684f">“Folsom Prison Blu,”</span></span> om 1955, to Gordon Jenks’s 1953 song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_7--b684f">“Crcent Cy Blu.”</span></span> Cash ultimately paid Jenks seventy-five thoand dollars (which now amounts to some six hundred and sixty thoand) for liftg his melody and some of his lyrics.</p><p>Bent explaed that songwrers n be found liable for gement of pyright even if the gement was “subnscly acplished.” The phrase om the judge a 1976 se, which found that Gee Harrison had unknowgly but unlawfully pied the Chiffons’ 1963 song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_8--b0db2">“He’s So Fe”</span></span> his 1970 h <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_8--b0db2">“My Sweet Lord.”</span></span> The two melodi are virtually intil.</p><p>“Also known as ‘cryptomnia,’ ” Bent add. He fed the term as “a fotten memory that is mistaken for an origal ia.” Pop mic is burstg wh cryptomniacs.</p><p>Before the Inter, lack of accs was the standard fense agast a claim of subnsc pyg: the poser uldn’t possibly have heard the accer’s obscure song. At mic publishers’ offic, assistants were stcted to return unsoliced rerdgs unopened, so that the senr uldn’t argue later that his work had been filched. But platforms like SoundCloud, Spotify, and <a href=">TikTok</a> have severely curtailed that fense. Fell, the milogist, told me, “Some kid will e to me and say, ‘I jt heard the latt Beyoncé song, and she stole my dm track!’ I say, ‘How did Beyoncé get to hear a dm track that you posed your garage?’ ‘Well, I put out on social media, and I have a hundred thoand followers. One of them uld work wh Jay-Z!’ ”</p><p>Can a style or a vibe ever be ged on, if not all that much pop is really new? Te, some homag to past styl are more brazen than others: Bno Mars and Mark Ronson took eighti funk groov om the Gap Band’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_6--cc1">“Oops Upsi Your Head”</span></span> and ma them part of the Grammy-wng song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_6--cc1">“Uptown Funk”</span></span> whout askg for permissn. After the “Blurred L” verdict, a number of songwrers were add to the song’s creds.</p><p>The mic dtry was recently shaken by “Heart on My Sleeve,” a song featurg a duet between a fake Drake and a fake the Weeknd, which both vols were created, g generative A.I., by an anonymo er lled Ghostface. Artists and rights holrs are ncerned that their creatns will be ed to tra A.I. generators that will eventually replace them. Faced wh that possibily, rights holrs are likely to seek more protectn for style, even though dog so uld make harr for artists to do their work whout gg.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Ed Townsend had two sons, Clef Michael and David, born to his wife, Cherrigale, and a dghter, also named Cherrigale, born Los Angel 1960 to a sger, who gave the child up for adoptn at birth. The adoptive fay, the Griffs, changed the baby’s name to Kathryn. When Kathryn was a child, her adoptive mother would pot at a hysterectomy sr on her stomach and say, “This is where you me om.”</p><p>Kathryn showed an aptu for mic, which ma her parents nervo. “My whole life, I wanted to play piano, flute, piclo,” she told me. The fay moved om L.A. to Hattiburg, Mississippi: “They didn’t want me the mic dtry, bee they were aaid I’d fd out who my father was and fall to the life he did.”</p><p>Griff fell anyway. She beme addicted to crack e and got to sex work to support her hab. She was trafficked, she told me, and after pg her abers she lived for a time a “rdboard ndomium” unr a bridge. She speaks a hoarse Southern drawl; spe of her past, she lghs a lot.</p><p>In 1986, when Griff was twenty-six, her grandfather, a Christian mister, told her that she was adopted. Her mother then nfsed that her blogil father was a famo mician. Griff lled an acquatance, Hubert Laws, the jazz mician. “Have you ever heard of a man named Ed Townsend?” she asked. Laws replied, “Everybody knows who Ed Townsend is!” Griff said, “Well, I don’t!”</p><p>She relled reachg Townsend by phone for the first time: “I said, ‘This is your dghter.’ He said, ‘I have looked for you your entire life.’ ” But he had been searchg for a Cherrigale, not a Kathryn.</p><p>Townsend left Griff a third of his “Let’s Get It On” royalti. (In the neteen-eighti, he had sold part of his share of the song’s publishg pyright to Jobete.) She promised to protect his legacy. Griff got sober 2003, the year Townsend died. She began unsellg women prison Hoton who had been sex workers; she is now an expert human-traffickg victims’ rights. Griff timat that she has rcued more than a thoand women om “the life.” When her half brother David died, 2005, he left Griff his share of his father’s royalti, as did her nt Helen McDonald, 2020.</p><p>Early 2015, iends of Griff alerted her to the siari between “Let’s Get It On” and a new song lled “Thkg Out Loud.” “They said, ‘This Brish guy, he jt changed the words and kept all the mic!’ ” she told me. Griff listened to both: “And I went, ‘Oh, my God. Wow.’ ”</p><p>Griff tried to notify Sony/ATV Mic Publishg, the behemoth that had recently acquired the Jobete talogue. But no one at Sony returned her lls. “Let’s Get It On” was the Amerin Songbook. Shouldn’t Sony want to protect s I.P. om gement? Then Griff figured out: Sony was probably nflicted bee was also the publisher of “Thkg Out Loud,” along wh much of the rt of Sheeran’s talogue.</p><p>Sony eventually asked two milogists to vtigate the claim. Both advised the pany that there was no gement, as did a third milogist, whom Sheeran had hired the U.K. Still, seemed to Griff that no one at Sony was lookg after her terts or her father’s legacy. (Sony says that often fds self on both sis of gement sus, and that remas ntral the s.)</p><p>Griff found lawyers, Pat Frank and Keisha Rice, Tallahassee, Florida. They ntacted Alexanr Stewart, a profsor of mic at the Universy of Vermont. Stewart heard enough siari between the two songs to wre a report sayg that Sheeran and Wadge were gg on Gaye and Townsend. In 2017, Griff’s attorneys filed a civil su New York, where Sony is headquartered, which charged that “the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic posns of ‘Thkg’ are substantially and /or strikgly siar” to “Let’s Get It On.” As wh “Blurred L,” the claim focsed not on obv siari the songs’ melodi or lyrics but on posnal elements associated wh the rhythmic harmony—the groove.</p></div><div class="styl-module--l--b9c76"><div class="ad ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent styl-module--adslotmidntent--892b3 styl-module--ad--c4fe8"></div></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>On a Monday a few weeks ago, shortly after 11 <em class="small">A.M.</em>, Judge Louis L. Stanton, who is nety-five years old, took his place at the bench a feral urtroom downtown Manhattan. The platiff, now Kathryn Griff Townsend, was seated next to her attorneys. She wore a dark-green drs, a long black at, and an exprsn of sombre rolve. Her dghter Skye was also attendance.</p><p>In mic-pyright trials, siari are asssed by two kds of people: expert listeners and lay on. The éle ears belong to forensic milogists, who are often amics wh advanced gre. They hear mic tellectually, quantifiable ponent parts: tempo, amplu, arrangement. The milogists offer supposedly objective analys of the “mil fgerprts” of songs, but they manage to arrive at oppose nclns, pendg on which si is employg them—generally for around five hundred dollars an hour. The lay listeners on the jury, who are a kd of proxy for pop mic’s dience, temper the experts’ ttimony wh what their own ears tell them.</p><p>In feral urt, this methodology is known as the Arnste tt. It riv om Arnste v. Porter—a famo 1946 se that was heard durg New York’s heyday as a songwrg town—volvg <a href=">Cole Porter</a>, the Broadway poser, and Ira B. Arnste, a wrer of Yiddish folk songs and light opera, who beme nvced that many of the biggt hs of the era had been stolen om him. The songwrer acced Porter of pyg the melodi “Night and Day” and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy,” among other songs, om sheet mic kept a tnk his shabby Upper Wt Si apartment, possibly aid by a duplico landlord. Arnste ultimately lost the se, as he lost every se his long reer as a pyright troll. However, as Gary Rosen not his book “Unfair to Geni,” om 2012, “It is wh Amerin jurispnce and not popular mic that the name Ira B. Arnste reverberat.” He adds, “If only he uld have llected a royalty on the se law that bears his name.”</p><p>Fourteen prospective lay listeners were lled to the Griff v. Sheeran jury box, and Judge Stanton asked whether anythg prevented them om renrg impartial judgment.</p><p>“ ‘Perfect’ was my weddg song,” a young woman said.</p><div class="styl-module--picture--67c26 styl-module--rtoon--7768e"><div class="styl-module--pictureContaer--433b0"><div class="styl-module--img--627c9"><div style="--aspect:55.2734375%" class="styl-module--ntaer--7d668 styl-module--haveAspect--ba25c"><picture><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt=""/></picture></div></div><div class="styl-module--ptnCred--721b5 styl-module--rtoon--7768e"><span class="styl-module--cred--ba6c3">Cartoon by Jt Sheen</span></div></div></div><p>“My teen-age dghters love Ed Sheeran,” another said. “I don’t know his mic.”</p><p>Both women were eventually rejected durg voir dire, as was a young man who said that he was pursug a doctorate milogy at Columbia Universy. Even though he was probably the bt-qualified potential juror to ci the se, he clearly wasn’t a lay listener. The fal seven-person jury clud a lawyer, a special-ed teacher, a dramaturge, an amatr sger, a recent llege graduate, and a guy who’d played tmpet middle school.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Bee “Let’s Get It On,” or “L.G.O.,” as the legal documents refer to the song, was rerd before 1978, is erned by the 1909 Copyright Act, which stipulated that, orr for a mil work to be registered for pyright, a wrten posn mt be submted to the U.S. Copyright Office, Washgton, as the “pos py.” (It wasn’t until the 1976 Copyright Act, which went to effect on January 1, 1978, that sound rerdgs were admissible as pos pi.)</p><p>In both the “Blurred L” and “Stairway to Heaven” s, the jury was not permted to listen to any pre-1978 rerdg. The jurors Griff v. Sheeran uld listen to the rerdg of Sheeran’s song, but they had to rely on the five pag of sheet mic for “Let’s Get It On,” a skeletal transcriptn that ntaed lyrics, melody, chords, and a notatn of where the synpated beats fall. Gaye’s piano and the Funk Brothers’ addns to the groove, such as the bass le, weren’t on the pos py. Gaye, who didn’t read mic, probably never even saw the transcriptn. (Sheeran n’t read mic, eher, a fact that he readily admted on the stand.) The only versns of “L.G.O.” that the jury uld listen to were the experts’ <em class="small">MIDI</em> d fil, which were ma om the sheet mic g mil software, and sung by a puter-generated voice. The tny, wheedlg sound of the synthized mic and the high-pched android vol ma a classic soul song sound utterly soulls.</p><p>Almost all the major Ain Amerin ntributns to Amerin mic—ragtime, jazz, swg, hip-hop—were built on rhythmic novatns that weren’t transcribed sheet mic and pyrighted. (The bent third and seventh blue not that lie at the heart of the blu n’t even be wrten twelve-note chromatic-sle notatn.) Ingrid Monson, the Qucy Jon Profsor of Ain Amerin Mic at Harvard, who also served as an expert wns for the Gaye fay the “Blurred L” trial, told me, “There uld be no pyright system ls sued to rewardg the creativy of Ain Amerin mic than the one we have. It was obvly molled on classil mic, and on the ia that a real piece of mic, one that was worthy of pyright, would be wrten notatn.”</p><p>Even though the Copyright Office now allows rerdgs to be submted place of transcriptns, melody and lyrics rema the most important elements of a mil pyright volvg a song’s posn, partly bee they n be seen by judg and juri on paper. The foc on protectg the tople seems out of step wh the domance ntemporary pop of the track—the harmonic and rhythmic bed for a song, ually ma by a producer on a digal workstatn—which equently preces melodi and lyrics. It’s often the track that mak a song sound unique.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Kathryn Griff Townsend isn’t the first person to acce Ed Sheeran of pyg a song. In 2017, on the advice of unsel, Sheeran settled an gement claim brought by the wrers of <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_9--2beec">“Amazg,”</span></span> a song performed by Matt Cardle, an “X Factor” wner, who mataed Sheeran’s 2014 h <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_9--2beec">“Photograph”</span></span> ged on their track. Ingement claims are often rolved this way. In 2015, Sam Smh settled amibly wh Tom Petty over the siary between the chos hook Smh’s song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_11--ebd96">“Stay wh Me”</span></span> and that Petty’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_11--ebd96">“I Won’t Back Down.”</span></span> In 2021, Olivia Rodrigo offered the band Paramore a wrg cred and a share of the profs om her song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_10--719a0">“Good 4 You,”</span></span> whose hook sounds a lot like the pre-chos of Paramore’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_10--719a0">“Misery Bs.”</span></span></p><p>But Sheeran me to feel that settlg (reportedly for five ln dollars) ma him a target for pyright trolls. <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_12--d0471">“Shape of You,”</span></span> a 2017 Sheeran megah, was the subject of multiple disput. He amibly rolved one, wh the songwrers of TLC’s h <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_12--d0471">“No Scbs,”</span></span> for borrowg s melody. (While wrg the song, he’d referred to as “the TLC song.”) He iated and won another se, brought the U.K., agast Sami Chokri, a Brish songwrer and grime artist, who’d asserted that Sheeran’s <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_12--d0471">“Shape of You”</span></span> had stolen the chos om his 2015 song <span><span class="styl-module--track--c1913 styl-module--lor_12--d0471">“Oh Why.”</span></span> The magistrate who cid the se Sheeran’s favor orred Chokri to pay more than ne hundred thoand pounds, to ver Sheeran’s legal fe.</p><p>In a BBC Two “Newsnight” terview that aired the U.K. after the victory, Sheeran and his -wrer John McDaid, of Snow Patrol, talked about the “extraordary stra” of the lawsu on their creativy and mental health. “The bt feelg the world is the phoria around the first ia of wrg a great song,” Sheeran said, perhaps rellg that night the kchen wh Wadge. “The first spark, where you go, ‘This is special—we n’t spoil this.’ ” He went on, “But that feelg has now turned to ‘Oh, wa, let’s stand back for a mute, have we touched anythg?’ You fd yourself the moment send-gusg yourself.” As a preutn, Sheeran add, he films all his songwrg ssns, should a claim later arise.</p><p>“This is not about money,” Sheeran said. “It’s about heart, honty, and tegry. W or lose, we had to go to urt—we had to stand up for what we thought was right.”</p><p>Sheeran cid to go to urt rather than settle wh Griff for the same reason. He ttified that his songwrer and artist iends were urgg him to fight, sayg, “ ‘You have to w this for .’ ” The days, Sheeran observed, “’s jt somethg that happens. When you wre songs and they’re succsful, someone after you.” He also said that, if he lost this se, he was gog to qu mic. “I’m fished,” he clared. “I’m done.”</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>Sheeran arrived urt the day after jury selectn. He wore a dark-navy su wh double vents the back, and a blue necktie wh small whe polka dots, but he still managed to look scffy, like a subway bker turned banker. He sat at the fense table, where, the urse of seven days, the spectators behd him—a mix of pyright attorneys, mic journalists, and superfans—uld study his distctive pper-lored if.</p><p>Townsend sat jt ont of Sheeran, at the platiff’s table. Her at, a gift om the mician <a href=">Gee Clton</a>, had the word “<em class="small">INTEGRITY</em>” emblazoned on the back, directly Sheeran’s le of sight. Townsend’s legal team clud the civil-rights lawyer Ben Cmp, a personal iend, who reprented <a href=">Gee Floyd</a>’s fay after Floyd’s murr, and worked wh Keisha Rice on the Trayvon Mart wrongful-ath se. This would be his first mic-pyright trial.</p><p>A few weeks earlier, Cmp had held a prs nference outsi the urthoe. Wh Townsend standg next to him, he’d said, “It is important that we unrstand that this is part of a larger issue. Far too many tim history, Black artists have created some of the most miraculo mic the world, only to see whe artists e and urp that mic and reap untold fortun while the Black artists and their fai rive nothg om their geni.”</p><p>But surely the Yorkshire-born Sheeran wasn’t solely rponsible for the shameful exploatn of Black artists wh the U.S. mic dtry? As Jennifer Jenks, a pyright-law profsor at De, put to me, “Sheeran isn’t Pat Boone verg songs by Ltle Richard, and he isn’t Alan Freed takg cred for Chuck Berry’s ‘Maybellene’ whout wrg a sgle note.” Neverthels, Cmp lled on Sheeran to “do the right thg” and settle wh Griff before the trial started. Otherwise, Cmp thunred, “let’s get on!”</p><p>In his openg statement, Cmp lled for “cred where cred is due,” but he stopped short of accg Sheeran of appropriatg Black mic. He characterized the vio of Sheeran’s Zurich ncert as a “smokg gun.”</p><p>“Maya Angelou tells that when a person shows you who they are, ’s our duty to believe them,” Cmp clared. “When someone provis you a voluntary nfsn, believe them.”</p><p>Ilene Farkas, a pyright specialist at the powerhoe firm Pryor Cashman, who along wh Donald Zakar led Sheeran’s legal team, livered the fense’s openg. She said that the only siari between the two songs were a mon chord progrsn and an equally mon synpated rhythm. The platiffs, she argued, “nnot own the mon mil elements.”</p><p>On the stand, Townsend scribed her feelgs about Sony’s failure to rpond to her quiri. “I feel they’ve been so negligent,” she said, her voice thick wh emotn. “And I promised my father I would protect his work and artistry.” She went on, “I have nothg agast Mr. Sheeran personally. I thk he’s a great artist wh a great future. I am simply tryg to protect my father’s legacy.”</p><p>After lunch, the platiffs lled Sheeran to the stand, where Rice qutned him. Sheeran ttified to hearg “L.G.O.” for the first time an At Powers movie, but nied pyg .</p><p>Rice asked Sheeran about his song “Take It Back,” which boasts about stealg rap lyrics:</p><blockquote><p>You’ll fd me rippg the wrtens</p><p>Out of the pag they s </p><p>And never once I get bten</p><p>Bee plagiarism is hidn</p></blockquote><p>“Are those your lyrics?” Rice asked.</p><p>“Can I jt give ntext?” Sheeran replied.</p><p>“If I need more ntext, I’ll certaly ask,” Rice said.</p><p>“I feel like you don’t want me to answer bee you know what I’m gog to say is gog to make a lot of sense,” Sheeran said.</p><p>Fally, the platiffs played the Zurich vio, which they saw as their strongt sgle piece of evince. (The admissibily of the vio as evince had been the subject of much legal manverg by the fense, who appeared keen not to see played.) Sheeran watched om the wns box, his moon face exprsnls. Afterward, he remarked, wh some heat, “Que ankly, if I had done what you’re accg me of dog, I would be an idt to stand on a stage ont of twenty thoand people and show that.”</p><p>Sheeran is a master of the mashup. At shows, he often terpolat his songs and other people’s songs, as a kd of mil party trick; he sometim tak requts om the dience. Throughout his time on the stand, he entertaed the jury and spectators by monstratg this wh an atic guar that his team placed wh reach of the wns box. At one pot, he started sgg “Thkg Out Loud,” transned to Shania Twa’s “You’re Still the One,” then to Bob Dylan’s “Jt Like a Woman,” and fished wh Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love.” Rerdgs of Sheeran’s mashups were played: “Take It Back” wh “Superstn,” by Stevie Wonr, and “A’t No Sunshe,” by Bill Whers.</p><p>“You n kd of play most pop songs over most pop songs,” Sheeran told the room. It was persuasive ttimony, but also helped expla why Sheeran’s songs sound faiar—they’re not so different om many other songs.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>In the “Blurred L” trial, Judh Fell voted much of her ttimony to a PowerPot prentatn. Average listeners have a hard time parg two songs rally, she told me: “The first song don’t stay their memory when the send song starts playg.” But, she add, “people do reta visual rmatn.” Her prentatn ed a time-stamped map of tervals the two songs which showed “signifint siari” by way of lor-d charts. To crics, her prentatn was all smoke and mirrors, signed to trick the jury to thkg that a llectn of unprotectable elements was forensic proof that “Blurred L” was staed wh Marv Gaye’s mil DNA.</p><div class="styl-module--picture--67c26 styl-module--image--c6335"><div class="styl-module--pictureContaer--433b0"><div class="styl-module--img--627c9"><div style="--aspect:56.13281249999999%" class="styl-module--ntaer--7d668 styl-module--haveAspect--ba25c"><picture><img loadg="lazy" src=" alt=""/></picture></div></div><div class="styl-module--ptnCred--721b5 styl-module--image--c6335"><span class="styl-module--ptn--88494">Ed Sheeran leav a Southern District of New York urthoe on April 26th, after ttifyg Griff v. Sheeran.</span><span class="styl-module--cred--ba6c3"> <!-- -->Photograph by Luiz C. Ribeiro / New York Daily News / TNS / Alamy</span></div></div></div><p>Townsend’s expert, Alexanr Stewart, had also prepared a sli show, and his prentatn focsed on three areas of siary between the songs. The were several melody agments; the synpated rhythm that anticipated the send and fourth chords; and the progrsn, which Stewart claimed was, the Roman nomenclature of chords, a I-iii-IV-V progrsn. He ttified that, of all the songs that me before “L.G.O.,” he uld fd only one—a versn of “Gey Girl” rerd by “a rather obscure Mexin bandlear” 1966—that employed the same batn of chord progrsn and synpatn. He timated that seventy per cent of the “mil value” of Sheeran’s song was rived om Gaye and Townsend’s.</p><p>Lawrence Ferrara, a profsor of mic at N.Y.U., was the forensic milogist for the fense. He poted out that the chord progrsn Ed Townsend had played for Gaye was so mon that was elementary mic-method books such as “How to Play Rock ’n’ Roll Piano,” published 1967. He claimed that six songs had the same progrsn and rhythm as “L.G.O.,” cludg Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “You Lost the Sweett Boy” (1963), sung by Mary Wells, and the Mexin rerdg of “Gey Girl.” (In the Seekers’ h versn, the expert noted, the guar is anticipated, but the bass plays <em>on</em> the beat.) If Sheeran were found to have illegally pied “Let’s Get It On,” then the rights holrs of those earlier songs uld claim that “L.G.O.” had ged on them, rultg a circular firg squad of lawsus. Ferrara varly characterized parts of Stewart’s ttimony as “farcil,” “absurd,” and “ludicro.”</p><p>Sheeran also mented on Stewart’s prentatn. “I thk what he’s dog is crimal,” he said. “I don’t know why he’s allowed to be an expert.” What annoyed Sheeran most was that Stewart heard an F-sharp mor chord at the begng of “Thkg Out Loud.” This would make intil to the I-iii-IV-V progrsn “L.G.O.,” if Sheeran’s song were transposed to E-flat. But, fact, Sheeran said, Stewart was wrong: the chord was a D over F-sharp—a D-major first versn, which Sheeran monstrated by stmmg both progrsns.</p><p>“I know what I’m playg on guar,” he said. “It’s me playg .”</p><p>“And how do you know Dr. Stewart is wrong?” Farkas asked.</p><p>“I wrote , and I play every week, a lot,” Sheeran said.</p></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>The other third of Ed Townsend’s third of the “Let’s Get It On” royalti, which was once owned by his son Michael, now belongs to Stctured Asset Sal, an L.A.-based pany found by the fancier David Pullman. Pullman is a pneer packagg song talogu as vtment-gra securi, a mon practice today. Essentially, an vtor buys a share and reaps a portn of future earngs om royalti, licensg, and new technologi like streamg. Pullman created the first of the securi, Bowie Bonds, llaboratn wh <a href=">David Bowie</a>, 1997. He has worked on siar als for talogu belongg to the tat of Jam Brown, the Isley Brothers, and Holland-Dozier-Holland, among others.</p><p>Pullman filed a separate hundred-ln-dollar su agast Sony 2018. In another legal actn, he is seekg to palize on an amic brief filed by the Copyright Office the “Stairway to Heaven” se, which noted that there uld be “multiple, distct pyrightable works that are all versns of the same song.” This opened up the possibily of refilg a sound rerdg wh the Copyright Office as a new arrangement, which would be vered by the l of the 1976 Copyright Act. After readg the brief, Pullman submted the rerdg of “L.G.O.” and sued Sheeran aga, based on substantial siari that were not reflected the origal pos py. Sheeran might well spend the rt of his life fendg his tenr evotn of endurg love agast an implable opponent whose name, like Arnste’s, is embedd New York se law. (To “Pullmanize” someone is to legally remove an unwanted owner om a -op buildg, named for the procs that Pullman’s fellow-owners on Wt Sixty-seventh Street went through state urt 2001.)</p><p>Pullman now liv an art-filled villa high atop Hollywood, wh an unbeatable view of the cy om his trapezoidal pool. As a mic vtor, he favors evergreens. In his timatn, there are so many more gement s the days not bee of ivolo lawsus but bee of bolr stanc of theft. “It ed to be, you’d fd a song that wasn’t that big a h,” he said, his rapid-fire speakg style. “Now they’ll take hs. You have a better chance of havg a h if you take a giant h. Why? Bee people already regnize !”</p><p>In Pullman’s opn, Sheeran is a serial ger: “Why do he wre songs so quickly? Maybe ’s bee parts of them are already wrten.” He mentned the Zurich vio: “He seamlsly go to ‘Let’s Get It On’—did you pick that song out of a hat? Out of sixty ln registered songs, why do you pick that song? It’s a tell.” He relled the well-known story of Pl McCartney gog around and askg people if the melody of “Yterday,” which had e to him a dream, was fact remembered om another song. Today, Pullman said, ’s “ge now, worry about later.”</p><p>Pullman said that he would nsir settlg for a rpectful sum: “I don’t unrstand why someone wants to go through so many trials. Every se agast him will jt get stronger.”</p></div><div class="styl-module--l--b9c76"><div class="ad ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent styl-module--adslotmidntent--892b3 styl-module--ad--c4fe8"></div></div><div class="styl-module--sectn--21cd0"><p>When I saw Kathryn Griff Townsend the urthoe feteria before closg arguments, she looked rted and happy. “W, lose, or draw, don’t matter, bee we won,” she told me. “Now people know what happened. And they’ll thk before they do aga.” She add, “This has never been about money.”</p><p>Ilene Farkas, who closed for the fense, noted that we were all here bee, exactly fifty years ago, Ed Townsend sat down at his piano and played Marv Gaye four chords. Townsend had been ee to e them to make a song, jt as Sheeran should be. “Do we have to tell the eleven-year-old next Ed Sheeran that they better fd out who owns that chord progrsn?” she asked.</p><p>Ben Cmp remd the jurors that this Ed Sheeran had threatened to qu mic if they cid agast him: a heavy burn. Millns of Sheeran fans would spise them, and the promoters and stadium owners volved Sheeran’s forthg world tour for his new album, “Subtract,” would be on the hook for the ncelled shows. “That’s simply a threat to try to play on your emotns,” Cmp said. “I promise you, no matter what your verdict is, he won’t be done wh mic.” The lawyer observed that Sheeran is, above all, a performer. “Don’t be charmed,” he said. “I’m sure if Ed Townsend was alive and this urt, he would have been jt as charmg.”</p><p>The jury liberated for ls than three hours before handg s verdict to Judge Stanton: Sheeran and Wadge had penntly created “Thkg Out Loud”; they had not ged on “Let’s Get It On.”</p><p>Sheeran, who had missed his paternal grandmother’s funeral to ttify, emotnally embraced Farkas and Zakar. Wadge wept. The mic executiv looked pleased. The trial had given both songs streamg bumps.</p><p>Outsi, on Worth Street, the pop star read a statement. “It looks like I’m not gog to have to retire om my day job,” Sheeran said. However, “I am unbelievably trated that basels claims like this are allowed to go to urt at all.” He hoped that now he and his fellow-songwrers uld “all jt go back to makg mic.” (Judge Stanton dismissed the first of Pullman’s lawsus a week later.) Then his artfully toled head disappeared to a black S.U.V. and was gone.</p><p>Townsend did not seem at all downhearted by the verdict. She had honored her promise to her father, she told me, which was “to protect his tellectual property.” She’d embraced Sheeran the urtroom after the verdict, and they’d chatted briefly. “ ‘All I ever wanted to do was talk to you about this,’ ” she said she’d told him. “ ‘I’m sorry took all this to make that happen.’ ”</p><p>Townsend went on to say that Sheeran had offered her tickets to his upg ncert at NRG Stadium, Hoton. She end up clg the offer, optg to attend her grandson’s pre-K graduatn stead. At the show, “Thkg Out Loud” me midway through. “Let’s Get It On” did not make the set list. ♦</p><p><em>An earlier versn of this article misintified the street where David Pullman lived a -op buildg.</em></p></div><div class="styl-module--creds--d6acb"><p>Aud: Rob Thicke, T.I., and Pharrell Williams, “Blurred L” (Star Trak); Johnny Cash, “Folsom Prison Blu” (Sun Label Group); The Chiffons “He’s So Fe” (Capol Rerds); Marv Gaye, “Let’s Get It On” (Motown Rerd Company); Cory Daye, “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (Featherbed Mic); Tom Petty, “I Won’t Back Down” (MCA Rerds); Gee Harrison, “My Sweet Lord” (G.H. Estate); Gordon Jenks, “Crcent Cy Blu” (Universal Mic); Miguel Bosé, “Don Diablo” (Sony Mic); Sami Swch, “Oh Why” (Sami Swch); The Gap Band, “Oops Upsi Your Head” (One Media); Sam Smh, “Stay wh Me” (Capol Rerds); Paramore, “Misery Bs” (Atlantic Rerdg); Ed Sheeran, “Shape of You” (Asylum Rerds); Bno Mars, “Uptown Funk” (Kobalt Mic); Matt Cardle, “Amazg” (Columbia); Dua Lipa, “Levatg” (Warner Rerds UK); TLC, “No Scbs” (LaFace Rerds); Katy Perry and Juicy J, “Dark Horse” (Capol Rerds); Olivia Rodrigo, “Good 4 U” (Geffen Rerds); Ed Sheeran, “Photograph” (Asylum Rerds UK); Ed Sheeran, “Thkg Out Loud” (Asylum Rerds UK); Led Zeppel, “Stairway to Heaven” (Mythgem); Marv Gaye, “Got to Give It Up” (Motown Rerds); Flame, “Joyful Noise” (Cross Movement Rerds); Spir, “Ts” (Sony Mic); Artikal Sound System, “Live Your Life” (Controlled Substance Sound Labs).</p></div></div></div></div><div id="gatsby-announcer" style="posn:absolute;top:0;width:1px;height:1px;paddg:0;overflow:hidn;clip:rect(0, 0, 0, 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