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I've only really looked into the case involving “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye's song, “Let's Get It On". I'm not music buff, but when you listen to them,
by YPPH 3y ago
I've only really looked into the case involving “Thinking Out Loud” and Marvin Gaye's song, “Let's Get It On". I'm not music buff, but when you listen to them, they are completely different. There is no similarity at all.
Sheeran's claim to the court he was going to quit music stuck me as beside the point - I hope the jury didn't hear that, lest it influence their verdict. The question for them was if there was infringement. There obviously wasn't.
This meritless lawsuit was always going to fail. But Sheeran was fortunate to have deep pockets. He can afford to defend meritless lawsuits. The bigger issue is how to deal with large companies suing independent artists, and the consequences they should suffer for instituting meritless lawsuits.
- williamcotton 3y agoNo one is suing indie artists for the $70k they made off of streaming last year!
- j16sdiz 3y agoYou are overestimating how much an indie artists earn of streaming. Sportify, for example, is paying ~$0.003 / steam.
- marssaxman 3y agoPerhaps they meant $70k in aggregate.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- dumbfounder 3y agoThat r you used in sportify belongs in steam.
- williamcotton 3y agoHe was obviously making a very well considered and important contribution to the discussion and not at all dropping a variety of turds, both real and proverbial, whilst sitting on the can.
- OJFord 3y ago1M or so streams per month is still indie realm isn't it? And anyway, if it's less, that just makes the point harder: 'nobody is suing indie artists for the 70k they didn't make last year'.
- marcus_holmes 3y agoI think this is actually the point. Sheeran was sued not because he made a song that sounded the same as another song, but because the song he made earned a lot of money. So this problem only happens to rich musicians who have earned a lot of money making music. That doesn't make it right, or reasonable, obviously. But it also means that the vast majority of musicians will never have this problem. The whole "copyright is threatening music" headline is a little overblown. "Rich douchebags are using copyright to bully rich musicians with meritless court cases" would probably be more accurate.
- _fat_santa 3y agoI think your comment exposes more of the underlying point. Why are the courts letting these baseless claims through? If you become famous everyone suddenly comes out of the woodwork to make the argument that they want a piece of your pie. And as you get more popular, those claims just get more and more detailed and cover more absurd. That would be demoralizing to any artist, regardless of their popularity or success.
- thayne 3y agoMaybe not, but it just takes a few DMCA notices to ruin their career.
- djur 3y agoThe two songs are very similar in some ways -- similar enough that even Sheeran played them as a live medley. I think the strongest argument is that the common elements are mostly shared genre markers, and courts have consistently held that genre similarities aren't evidence of copying.
- lisper 3y ago> The two songs are very similar in some ways This is a vacuous observation. Any two songs are similar "in some ways". > even Sheeran played them as a live medley I think that says more about Sheeran's skill as a performer than it does about the similarity of the songs.
- AlbertCory 3y agoNo, it doesn't. Watch Rick Beato put them side by side. (this is not to say it's an infringement; they're just very similar.)
- wpietri 3y agoAh, thanks. As a non-musician, this helps me see what the similarities are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9rBN4UtkWQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9rBN4UtkWQ
- lisper 3y agoMeh, this is a parlor trick. The two songs have similar rhythms and chord progressions, that is all. There is probably not a single popular song ever written that didn't share those features with some other song out there somewhere. And two songs don't even have to be similar at all to be able to fram them together in a way that sounds coherent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfOx4CmQWLs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfOx4CmQWLs
- AlbertCory 3y agoSo you can take some other song and make it coherent with Let's Get It On? waiting. this sounds interesting. For the record: I don't think it's infringement.
- smrtinsert 3y agoRick Beato did an excellent comparison of them and how they are very similar. However, similarity is a personal judgement I think.
- Smoosh 3y agoThere shouldn't even be a copyright issue for a work released in 1971 - over 50 years ago. Surely the work should be in the public domain in any reasonable system.
- juliusdavies 3y agoI think the law in the USA is that copyright is maintained until 70 years after the death of the writer/composer (unless it was a work-for-hire). So just another 31 years to go here (2054) assuming Marvin Gaye was the sole author.
- acomjean 3y agoSomewhat oddly this song fits into a weird slot in history: “ A quirk of the law restricts which aspects of “Let’s Get It On” (1973) are under copyright. For many songs made before 1978, only the contents of the sheet music submitted to the Copyright Office (known as the “deposit copy”) are protected. With “Let’s Get It On,” that notation was skeletal: just chords, lyrics and a vocal melody. Other key aspects of the track, like its bass line and signature opening guitar riff, were absent. That means the lawsuit primarily came down to the chord progressions of the two songs, which are nearly — but not entirely — identical.” https://www.nytimes.com/article/ed-sheeran-marvin-gaye-copyright-trial.html?unlocked_article_code=SgS4y2jFImQ20rL2ZtOERTBXRLsGcbQxnMRewMEqJjJSns2KevP6z4HfZZzDjRNpdU0irTszrqApwMLohOEbXayrHQ5687KKDSEKWslzfZ1InR45K0aL1QLCh8zPc2CF17zKsuvhzXNbzs0sa1NIXYgNmSt1eMWDeKjSnvPGQV_4ABmh0LxQOeMouiG7d6HlRSrPSRSOqjds-hv61wQFhi3Sxf_wEyV5Vnxm09sKVBRbPRGlMJkMbr7JzIcPmw6VIWYhR6HMuR6K-VGr4O7KIxKmZR5fWFKusPPX0Qq1ZA0i89Iy68pFwe0eUn-6FooREqxC_DMKVGOaw8GVaUI3X7SYbjfZ&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/article/ed-sheeran-marvin-gaye-copyr...