Page 2 - Blurred Lines Case News Today

Are there times, do you think, when lawyers themselves are often pushing these cases? yeah, i think the lawyer is looking to make a name for himself. he filed the case, as i understand it, in louisiana, which is the fifth circuit, which is not where you file copyright cases — that would be done in either new york or la, where the judges have seen the cases before, where lawyers have litigated these cases before — but nobody has heard of this guy or his lawyer, except people in louisiana, so ...

Had sort of claims come through on songs and we go, well, heres the footage and you watch and youll see that theres nothing there. but, johnny, where does this end? because if im bringing a case, do i subpoena your streaming records, everything youve listened to for the last five yea rs. i mean, how does that work? that would be, i would imagine, impossible, you know, because whatever limitation you have, if somebody wants to get at you, then theyll say the gap in that limitation is the problem....

# holding me closer...#. and there was a claim made on that. and we were basically advised to settle that, because i was on tour, lots of other things going on and it was basically, you havent got time to do this and also theres a culture around this that you probably would lose. so we settled that. and i think from there, much like with the blurred lines case, the floodgates opened and they go, well, if you did that then, and i think that has added into this, basically. do you regret settling t...

Yeah, you described it as like rocket science, only more complicated. yeah, well... thats going to follow you around forever. yeah, sometimes you say something and then, you know, time machine and all. # im in love with your body #. im in love with your body...#. but the making of that song, tell me if im wrong, but it was like an hour and a half, is that right? it was a relatively short period of one day. yeah. and i think a lot of what the case boiled down to with this is not people not believ...

# im in love with the shape of you #. we push and pull like a magnet do...#. is this, in a sense, about the scale of what you do, the degree of success youve had? because one hears the phrase, no hit, no writ, in the record business. i mean, is it the case that people go after obscure songs? have you ever had something thats cropped up in that sort of regard? is it purely about saying, ok, this one is a monster hit, shape of you, and therefore its much more likely to come under dispute? yeah, i ...

That would be a win. do you mean ways of trying to find a way through some of these things without it going to court, to arbitrate orto...? well, i think theres obvious holes in the system at the moment. if i can go to a musicologist and get a report and then take that report to a society, and then they freeze someones income based on that, thats a problem. its a problem because it creates — not in this case, specifically, just in the wider scheme of things — it creates a culture where it ca...

Now this case is over? im happy its over. im happy we can move on and get back to writing songs. and, yeah, imjust... all of it makes me sad, all of it. johnny, personalstrain the last few years, fighting this through? yeah, an extraordinary strain. and i think it seems to be the case across the board and on all sides. this is really not a fun process and its not why we got into this. its not why we got into making music. so while theres relief, its also going to need time to integrate what went...

And i think we feel really grateful that the system in this instance offered us a chance to be heard, and it offered the other side a chance to be heard, because we believe that thats necessary moving forward. everybody deserves to have a voice. everybody deserves to be heard in this. i think we were really lucky to have the judge we had in this case, who was exceptionally musical, probably the most musical person in the room. i mean, in terms of his technicality and his ability to navigate the ...

# im in love with your body...#. and his 2017 song shape of you, co—written with his regular songwriting partners johnny mcdaid and steve mac, remains the most streamed song on spotify ever, with over three billion streams to date. but the song led to another lawsuit for sheeran. this time, the grime artist sami chokri claimed that sheeran had borrowed a refrain from chokris song, 0h why, for shape of you. chokri demanded a songwriting credit, and the uks official music licensing body barred s...

And we were given two options and we chose the option that was integral to us. and johnny, obviously, youve done collaborations of all kinds. youve got snow patrol, youre working across the industry. what do you think was at stake for you as a writer in bringing this case? well, one of the most important parts of the songwriting process for us is that theres a sacred space, one we can trust. and we need to be able to lean into that space and make music freely and honourably. but to do it in a wa...