2 bars, 4 chords: copyright applies?

[BertKoor]

Apparently so, especially when it considers big sales numbers...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ed-sheeran ... ght-trial/

Jury selection and opening statements began Monday in a trial that mashes up Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" with Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On."

The heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye's co-writer of the 1973 soul classic, sued Sheeran, alleging the English pop star's 2014 hit tune has "striking similarities" to "Let's Get It On" and "overt common elements" that violate their copyright.

The two songs were released decades apart, but some say they sound seamless when paired together.
[...]
The lawsuit filed in 2017 has finally made it to a trial that is expected to last a week in the Manhattan federal courtroom of 95-year-old Judge Louis L. Stanton.

[BONES]

It's a lot more than that. Assuming those audio clips haven't been altered, the backing tracks sound almost identical - same sounds, same tempo. It's a bit more than coincidence.

[Jac459]

Apparently so, especially when it considers big sales numbers...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ed-sheeran ... ght-trial/

I find the fact that they make it a racial issue really disturbing...

[osiris]

I guess the Marvin Gaye estate is just going to sue anyone who uses that chord structure and God forbid you use a cowbell in your tune. I guess their still trying to get the $9.2 million that he owed the IRS for taxes when he died.

[vurt]

I guess the Marvin Gaye estate is just going to sue anyone who uses that chord structure and God forbid you use a cowbell in your tune. I guess their still trying to get the $9.2 million that he owed the IRS for taxes when he died.

it's not the gaye estate, it's the townsend estate, the writer, not performer

[osiris]

He could be on to something. Guy on the news showed a bass and a drum part are essentially the same. He said the key of the Sheeran song is pitched up, but...I tend to believe a guy who shows his work in an audio editor that he plays live OTA.

[Jac459]

He could be on to something. Guy on the news showed a bass and a drum part are essentially the same. He said the key of the Sheeran song is pitched up, but...I tend to believe a guy who shows his work in an audio editor that he plays live OTA.

Are you referring to the YouTube video in the OP ? To me it isn't that similar at all... But difficult to hear with so little time...

[BONES]

What YT video? If you mean the CBS news video, then they sound pretty much identical to me.

[Lee N]

A bad day for songwriters if they win. We all have our influences and these things are going to happen. It's virtually impossible to write a pop song without it sounding like something, somewhere else. Whether Sheeran did it intentionally or not, songwriting will just become too much of a risk if they win this case. The ambulance chasers will just ruin music as we know it - it won't stop until everything is broken.

[Jac459]

A bad day for songwriters if they win. We all have our influences and these things are going to happen. It's virtually impossible to write a pop song without it sounding like something, somewhere else. Whether Sheeran did it intentionally or not, songwriting will just become too much of a risk if they win this case. The ambulance chasers will just ruin music as we know it - it won't stop until everything is broken.

I agree.

[BONES]

A bad day for songwriters if they win. We all have our influences and these things are going to happen. It's virtually impossible to write a pop song without it sounding like something, somewhere else. Whether Sheeran did it intentionally or not, songwriting will just become too much of a risk if they win this case. The ambulance chasers will just ruin music as we know it - it won't stop until everything is broken.

It's been going on for 60 years or more and it hasn't ruined anything yet. It's a very hard thing to prove.

[vstdls]

I agree... but you guys didn't hear this song and say: "wow, we can just blatantly rip off the entirety of Let's Get it On now?"

I think it will have to be judged on intention... because c'mon, it is the exact same song.

[BertKoor]

because c'mon, it is the exact same song.

Groove and chords are the same indeed, but melody & lyrics are very different. And that's up to the judge now: what constitutes a song, specifically the copyright-able parts?

Up until now it was believed that if you reuse a melody or lyrics and change everything else, then you may infringe on existing copyright. Here it's the exact opposite. Rhythm and chords were deemed too generic to be copyright-able.

[BONES]

Every part of a song is protected. A few years ago Men At Work were successfully sued because the flute solo in Down Under sounds vaguely like a song we used to sing at Primary School. I honestly couldn't hear it at all but the publisher won the case and got a big payout.

I agree... but you guys didn't hear this song and say: "wow, we can just blatantly rip off the entirety of Let's Get it On now?"

I'd never heard so much as a note from that song until I watched that news report and I have no desire to hear any more, thank you.

I think it will have to be judged on intention... because c'mon, it is the exact same song.

That's not how a trial works. The jury will be given very specific instructions as to what they can and cannot consider.

[ericj23]

because c'mon, it is the exact same song.

Groove and chords are the same indeed, but melody & lyrics are very different. And that's up to the judge now: what constitutes a song, specifically the copyright-able parts?

Up until now it was believed that if you reuse a melody or lyrics and change everything else, then you may infringe on existing copyright. Here it's the exact opposite. Rhythm and chords were deemed too generic to be copyright-able.

From Sheeran's trial
A musicologist retained by the plaintiffs has described the chords in each song as “virtually interchangeable” while acknowledging they are slightly different. A musicologist for Sheeran has said the chord sequence is not unique, and gave numerous other examples of its use in songs by artists such as Donovan and the Seekers.

Sheeran himself pointed this out
“Most pop songs can fit over most pop songs … You could go from Let it Be to No Woman, No Cry and switch back,”

I have to say I think both songs are gawd awful cheese but having listened to them both they are clearly different songs. This is the worst example of shady legal practice that I have seen in a while.