4 ms·

Ed Sheeran found not liable for copyright infringement in Marvin Gaye lawsuit

75 points by neverminder 3y ago

bilekas 3y ago
This is a relief, i was genuinely shocked this was even brought forward to be honest. It's also a bit counter productive for the Gaye family too to be doing this. They already sued it seems LST year for 5+ million USD. If I was looking for a piece of music I needed to pay royalties on, i would rethink the great music from Marvin Gaye.
- amanaplanacanal 3y ago
  I believe in this case it wasn’t Gaye’s family that brought the suit but rather the family of his co-writer.
  - bilekas 3y ago
    Wow.. that's not what was implied at all, this is only the second article I've read on it but I don't remember reading that. Will have to check that one up!
- Maursault 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - neverminder 3y ago
    Fingers crossed
    - Maursault 3y ago
      Holy downvoting, but there is a massive amount of valid negative criticism of Sheeran's music:[1] it is boring; it is a downer; it all sounds the same; too much of it could not remotely be considered novel; Sheeran does not take risks with his songs; there is more than one song that has obviously been lifted from earlier artists' work, yet he does not cite his sources; his vocal lacks passion and soul; his tracks require autotune software to correct his pitch, and it is audible and recognizable; his product is overly manufactured with strikingly narrow dynamics; not sure how much input he has here, but his mixes are simply bad, with his vocal always unnaturally louder than everything else cancelling instrument frequencies rather than properly seated in the mix (try turning any of his tracks down to very low volume, and all you will hear is his vocal and no other instrument, then do this with a professionally mixed track for a reference, such as The Kinks' The Contenders, Eagles' Hotel California, Jeff Buckley's Grace, Beck's It's All In Your Mind, or Sondre Lerche's My Hands Are Shaking, and no matter how low you drop the volume, you will still hear every instrument with the vocal seated in the mix rather than cancelling everything else). There's many, many things objectively wrong with his product, and it has not improved since his early releases. In fact, it's been getting steadily worse. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Ed+sheeran%27s+music+is+bad&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=Ed+sheeran%27s+music+is+bad&...
- bwb 3y ago
  Same here, I am really glad about this ruling and hope it doesn't make it to an appeal.
- LukeHoersten 3y ago
  The plaintiff is the family of the song's late co-writer, Ed Townsend.
- olyjohn 3y ago
  Honestly though, it does sound like the Marvin Gaye song, a lot. Not that I think this lawsuit is legit or anything... But... Sheerhan claimed he's only vaguely familiar with it. Is he fucking serious? He's a musician, and only vaguely familiar with Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on." Does he only write his own music, and not listen to anything ever? I'm the least educated person in music, and even I know the song well enough to know that this song sounds a lot like it.
  - InCityDreams 3y ago
    As a trained musician, I couldn't have put it better myself. I often get the same reaction watching yt 'reaction' videos.
  - viraptor 3y ago
    > and even I know the song well enough There's some selection bias here - you're saying this because you are familiar with that song and reading this. But, ask lots of people to choose a song that they are most familiar with and you'll likely find you know a tiny % of them.
keeganpoppen 3y ago
this case is a lot closer than the "Blurred Lines" case, but both are hogwash
- hackeraccount 3y ago
  Agree on the Blurred Lines. I mean you read a description of the case and it's hard to believe they won. Now listen to both songs and ... well, I'm copyright minimalist but it's a little bit easier to see what they were getting at. Still as you say hogwash.
xmodem 3y ago
> The singer is also facing claims over Thinking Out Loud in the same court from a company owned by investment banker David Pullman that holds copyright interests in the Gaye song. I expect we'll see more of this as investment firms continue to consolidate copyrights. It's not at all clear to me how any of this promotes the progress of science or the useful arts.

75 points by neverminder 3y ago

This is a relief, i was genuinely shocked this was even brought forward to be honest. It's also a bit counter productive for the Gaye family too to be doing this. They already sued it seems LST year for 5+ million USD. If I was looking for a piece of music I needed to pay royalties on, i would rethink the great music from Marvin Gaye.

amanaplanacanal 3y ago
I believe in this case it wasn’t Gaye’s family that brought the suit but rather the family of his co-writer.
- bilekas 3y ago
  Wow.. that's not what was implied at all, this is only the second article I've read on it but I don't remember reading that. Will have to check that one up!
Maursault 3y ago
[flagged]
- neverminder 3y ago
  Fingers crossed
  - Maursault 3y ago
    Holy downvoting, but there is a massive amount of valid negative criticism of Sheeran's music:[1] it is boring; it is a downer; it all sounds the same; too much of it could not remotely be considered novel; Sheeran does not take risks with his songs; there is more than one song that has obviously been lifted from earlier artists' work, yet he does not cite his sources; his vocal lacks passion and soul; his tracks require autotune software to correct his pitch, and it is audible and recognizable; his product is overly manufactured with strikingly narrow dynamics; not sure how much input he has here, but his mixes are simply bad, with his vocal always unnaturally louder than everything else cancelling instrument frequencies rather than properly seated in the mix (try turning any of his tracks down to very low volume, and all you will hear is his vocal and no other instrument, then do this with a professionally mixed track for a reference, such as The Kinks' The Contenders, Eagles' Hotel California, Jeff Buckley's Grace, Beck's It's All In Your Mind, or Sondre Lerche's My Hands Are Shaking, and no matter how low you drop the volume, you will still hear every instrument with the vocal seated in the mix rather than cancelling everything else). There's many, many things objectively wrong with his product, and it has not improved since his early releases. In fact, it's been getting steadily worse. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=Ed+sheeran%27s+music+is+bad&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=Ed+sheeran%27s+music+is+bad&...
bwb 3y ago
Same here, I am really glad about this ruling and hope it doesn't make it to an appeal.
LukeHoersten 3y ago
The plaintiff is the family of the song's late co-writer, Ed Townsend.
olyjohn 3y ago
Honestly though, it does sound like the Marvin Gaye song, a lot. Not that I think this lawsuit is legit or anything... But... Sheerhan claimed he's only vaguely familiar with it. Is he fucking serious? He's a musician, and only vaguely familiar with Marvin Gaye's "Let's get it on." Does he only write his own music, and not listen to anything ever? I'm the least educated person in music, and even I know the song well enough to know that this song sounds a lot like it.
- InCityDreams 3y ago
  As a trained musician, I couldn't have put it better myself. I often get the same reaction watching yt 'reaction' videos.
- viraptor 3y ago
  > and even I know the song well enough There's some selection bias here - you're saying this because you are familiar with that song and reading this. But, ask lots of people to choose a song that they are most familiar with and you'll likely find you know a tiny % of them.

keeganpoppen 3y ago

this case is a lot closer than the "Blurred Lines" case, but both are hogwash

hackeraccount 3y ago
Agree on the Blurred Lines. I mean you read a description of the case and it's hard to believe they won. Now listen to both songs and ... well, I'm copyright minimalist but it's a little bit easier to see what they were getting at. Still as you say hogwash.

xmodem 3y ago

> The singer is also facing claims over Thinking Out Loud in the same court from a company owned by investment banker David Pullman that holds copyright interests in the Gaye song. I expect we'll see more of this as investment firms continue to consolidate copyrights. It's not at all clear to me how any of this promotes the progress of science or the useful arts.