Ed Sheeran is being sued for $100million (€85.91m) for allegedly copy parts of Marvin Gaye’s classic track Let’s Get It On on his song Thinking Out Loud.
According to legal documents lodged in New York, the British star’s 2014 track copies the “melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation and looping” of Gaye’s 1973 song.
The claim has been brought by a company called Structured Asset Sales (SAS), which owns part of the copyright of Gaye’s song.
Gaye co-wrote the track alongside Edward Townsend in 1973. Townsend died in 2003 but SAS bought one-third of the copyright.
Sheeran has already faced legal action over the track after a daughter of Townsend claimed that Thinking Out Loud copied Let’s Get It On. He denied those allegations.
The album X, which features Sheeran’s song, sold more than 15 million copies. Thinking Out Loud was also nominated for a Grammy for Song Of The Year in 2015.
Other defendants listed in the claim include Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the Atlantic record label and Amy Padge, Sheeran’s co-writer on the song.
Sheeran has not commented on the allegations.
Sheeran previously found himself at the centre of a $20m copyright infringement lawsuit over a dispute concerning Matt Cardle’s song Amazing and his single Photograph, which was later settled.
rte.ie
