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Ed Sheeran settles one of his song-theft lawsuits
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 12 November 2018
Fans of Ed Sheeran song-theft lawsuits need to get their whiteboards out, scan down to the listing for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill track ‘The Rest Of Our Life’ and mark it “settled”.
Sheeran co-wrote the song for the country stars with Johnny McDaid, Steve Mac and Amy Wadge. They were sued in the US in January by Australian songwriters Sean Carey and Beau Golden who accused Sheeran et al of “blatantly” copying their 2014 song ‘When I Found You’.
In their original legal filing, Cary and Golden alleged that the copying of ‘When I Found You’ on ‘The Rest Of Our Life’ is “in many instances, [a] verbatim, note-for-note copying of original elements of [Carey and Golden’s] song, and is obvious to the ordinary observer”.
The case seemed noteworthy, partly because it was the latest in a number of song-theft lawsuits being pursued against Sheeran, but also partly because of the lawyer who was representing Cary and Golden: a certain Richard Busch.
Busch is the lawyer who successfully represented the Marvin Gaye estate in one of the biggest song theft lawsuits of recent times, ie – the ‘Blurred Lines’ case. He then followed that up by suing a certain Master Sheeran over the allegation his song ‘Photograph’ ripped off the Matt Cardle track ‘Amazing’. That case was settled out of court.
The judge overseeing the ‘Rest Of Our Life’ case was told that settlement talks were underway back in July. Then last week legal reps for Carey and Golden told the court that “all parties have agreed in principle” to a settlement deal, terms of which are not known.
Neither side has as yet commented on that settlement beyond the update provided to the court. But assuming it’s a done deal, Team Sheeran can instead focus on his other lingering song-theft legal battle which, although not involving any lawyers from the ‘Blurred Lines’ action, does centre on the allegation that Eddie ripped off a Marvin Gaye track.
