'Thinking Out Loud' about Copyright Infringement & Control

    After releasing his Grammy award-winning song “Thinking Out Loud” in 2014, singer Ed Sheeran found himself in the middle of a copyright infringement lawsuit. He was accused of copying the sheet music for “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye. 


    According to ABC News, the lawsuit accused Sheeran of taking the rhythm, chord progression, and other elements without permission. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented the plaintiffs (the family of late co-writer Ed Townsend), said the lawsuit was to give “credit where credit is due” (Katersky & Deliso, 2023). Sheeran’s lawyers argued “Thinking Out Loud” was an “original creation.” In May 2023, a Manhattan jury ruled that Sheeran did not engage in willful copyright infringement (Katersky & Deliso, 2023).


    Lawsuits like this are becoming more common. Singer George Harrison, who was also accused of copyright infringement, once said, “I still don’t understand how the courts aren’t filled with similar cases – as 99% of the popular music that can be heard is reminiscent of something or other" (2023). 


    These two artists are examples of L.B. Bermingham’s Remix Manifesto (2009), which states that culture always builds on the past, the past always tries to control the future, our future becomes less free and to build free societies you must limit the control of the past. During his trial, Sheeran played a mash-up on the guitar of “Thinking Out Loud” and “Let’s Get It On” to show just how common the four-chord progression within his song is (Katersky & Deliso, 2023). With only a certain number of chords on the guitar to choose from, it only makes sense that some songs may end up sounding similar. The future of music is less free and is controlled by what music has come before it. Artists may be worried about being sued for creating music. 





    The ruling in Sheeran’s trial proves that the jury, along with the court, agrees with Bermingham’s idea that the past can’t have full control over the future. Several popular songs sound similar, including Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and “Express Yourself” by Madonna. Blatant copying should not be tolerated, but sometimes the accusations of copyright are far-fetched. 


    Brett Gaylor believes there are two sides to this fight: copy-right and copy-left (Bermingham, 2009). Copy-right refers to those who want to control intellectual property (corporations) and copy-left refers to those who want to protect cultural evolution by freeing the sharing of ideas. Which side do you land on? Do you think that copyright laws are for the benefit of corporations or artists? If you could, how would you change copyright laws to limit the control of the past? 


Sources: 


Bermingham, L. (2009). Culture jamming or a culture jammed?: “RIP! - A remix manifesto.” Screen Education, 54, 44. http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=876525954485614;res=IELLCC


Katersky, A., & Deliso, M. (2023, May 4). Ed Sheeran wins copyright infringement lawsuit involving “Thinking Out Loud.” ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jury-reaches-verdict-ed-sheeran-copyright-infringement-case/story?id=99022695


This song  (2023, September 11). George Harrison | The Beatles Bible. The Beatles Bible. https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/george-harrison/songs/this-song/#:~:text=I%20still%20don't%20understand,reminiscent%20of%20something%20or%20other.&text=Harrison%20was%20deeply%20troubled%20by,Song'%20about%20his%20courtroom%20experiences

Comments

  1. Ivy NorthFebruary 12, 2024 at 6:51 PM

    Interesting post that is full of great things to think about. I found the idea of copy-right and copy-left by Brett Gaylor extremely interesting. I have never thought of this before. It makes me think about all these cases where copyright infringement is the issue. Should we really be going against the corporation (i.e. record label, streaming services, etc.), versus the songwriter?

    You point out that Ed Sheeran demonstrated the chords in court, and how the song uses a four-chord progression. This is similar to the video that Dr. Stein shared in the module video about Axis of Awesome. Each of those songs shared four chords.

    I am an avid music listener (anywhere from Country to Rap to Latin to Classical), and I have always had a thought come into my mind when listening to certain genres of music: Will we ever run out of music to create? One of the top genres that come into my mind is pop music. Just like the name says, it's popular music for a reason. It seems like pop music has to sound similar to each other in order to make it popular. There's an equation (i.e. elements of a song) for these songs, as described in our module video. I wonder if we will ever reach a place where music can no longer be created without some sort of reference, copy, or likeness to another song. We may have even reached a point, because recently, I have seen a lot of top popular songs using samples of other songs or remixes (example: "I'm Good (Blue)" by Bebe Rexha and David Guetta; "Got Me Started" by Troye Sivan; "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez). There was also a trend very recently where AI was being used to generate songs and made to sound like artists.

    If you're looking for another example (for fun) of a time where songwriters went head to head (more-so the fans of each group) on a song sounding similar, look at the case of One Direction's "Best Song Ever" compared to The Who's "Baba O'Riley." The beginning progression of the songs sound similar (https://youtu.be/bKGzhhdX224). However, one of the members of The Who mentioned that he liked the song regardless. I think this is a perfect example of the sharing of ideas rather than controlling intellectual property.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Christopher DansonFebruary 16, 2024 at 8:21 AM

    I fall in the middle of the copyright argument. I think we do need something to protect the artist to gain credit for their creativity but I don't think having it for so long stuck in the corporations or somebody's estate to continue to make money. The ability to use somebody's creative ideas should be a benefit for future generations to be creative as well.

    I would change the copyright law to 18 years of protection. After that, the art or idea can enter into the public domain. This would be about a generation of time that the artist or corporation has the right to profit off their work. It would also allow them to continue to be creative and produce new things, even with other works in the public domain.

    Just my two cents that I don't know if anybody would take seriously though.

    ReplyDelete

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