Ed Sheeran Denies Copyright Infringement Accusations In Court

Ed Sheeran has defended his song Shape Of You against copyright infringement claims in London’s High Court on Monday. 

The 31-year-old singer is fighting a copyright claim against his hit song Shape Of You, which two songwriters claim rips off parts of their track.

Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue, allege that the 2017 mega hit infringes “particular lines and phrases” of their own song Oh Why, which was released in 2015.

In court, representing the Oh Why songwriters, Andrew Sutcliffe QC described Sheeran as a “magpie” who “borrows” ideas from other artists to use in his own song.

“The case questions whether Sheeran ‘makes things up as he goes along’ in his songwriting, or includes collection and development of ideas over time which reference and interpolate other artists,” Sutcliffe told the court.

“Sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won’t,” he added.

In the witness box, Sheeran responded to this comment by saying “if Mr Sutcliffe would have done his research,” he would have known he had cleared parts of songs with “lots” of artists in the past.

Sheeran also claimed that he had not known about the song Oh Why, while he was writing Shape Of You.

Monday marks the second day of the hearing, which is expected to last three weeks.

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