Ed Sheeran has broken his silence and issued a joint statement after he won a High Court battle over one of his hit songs. A judge ruled that the singer's 2017 track Shape Of You does not infringe another artist's copyright.
At a trial last month (March), Sheeran and his Shape Of You co-writers, Snow Patrol’s John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, faced accusations that they ripped off the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue.
The singer-songwriter and his co-authors originally launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O’Donoghue’s copyright. But two months later, Chokri – a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch – and O’Donoghue issued their own claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".
READ MORE: Gemma Collins 'booed' for comment as she makes 'incredible' debut with tour in Manchester
In a ruling on Wednesday (Apri 6), Mr Justice Zacaroli concluded that Sheeran "neither deliberately nor subconsciously" copied a phrase from Oh Why when writing Shape Of You.
Sheeran has now called for the end of "baseless claims" after winning his High Court copyright battle. In a video shared on Instagram, the singing star said: "Hey guys, me, Johnny and Steve have made a joint statement that will be press-released on the outcome of this case but I wanted to make a small video to talk about it a bit because I’ve not really been able to say anything while it’s been going on.
"While we are 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, and it’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.
"There are only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music and coincidences are bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released a day on Spotify, that is 22 million songs a year, and there are only 12 notes that are available.
"I don’t want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered from both sides of this case but I just want to say I’m not an entity, I’m not a corporation, I’m a human being, I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a son."
He added: "Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience and I hope with this ruling it means in the future baseless claims like this can be avoided. This really does have to end.
"Me, Johnny and Steve are very grateful for all the support sent to us by fellow songwriters over the last few weeks. Hopefully we can all get back to writing songs rather than having to prove we can write them."
Chokri and O’Donoghue alleged that an "Oh I" hook in Shape Of You is "strikingly similar" to an "Oh Why" refrain in their own track. During the 11-day trial at the Rolls Building in London, Sheeran denied he “borrows” ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgment and insisted he “always tried to be completely fair” in crediting people who contribute to his albums.
The singer told the court he was trying to "clear my name" and denied using litigation to "intimidate" Chokri and O’Donoghue into abandoning the copyright dispute. Chokri told the trial he felt "robbed" by the music star and was "shocked" when he first heard Shape Of You on the radio.
Giving a summary of his ruling at a brief hearing on Wednesday, Mr Justice Zacaroli said there are “similarities” between the one-bar phrase which repeats the words “Oh Why” in Mr Chokri’s song and the repetition of “OI” in Mr Sheeran’s song.
The judge said there was such a similarity that Mr Chokri ‘s initial reaction to hearing Shape of You was “understandable”. However, he said such similarities are “only a starting point” for a copyright infringement claim and that there are also “significant differences” between the phrases in each of the songs.
