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Ed Sheeran sued for ripping off another song (again)

By | Published on Friday 12 January 2018

Ed Sheeran

It’s comforting to know that no matter where you are, and no matter what’s happening in your life, you’re never too far away from news that Ed Sheeran is being sued for ripping off someone else’s song. The latest accusation of that kind relates to ‘The Rest Of Our Life’, a song he co-wrote for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill.

McGraw and Hill released the duet in October and it’s the title track from an album of duets between the married country stars. The song’s other co-writers are Amy Wadge, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac.

In a lawsuit filed in New York this week, reports The Hollywood Reporter, Australian songwriters Sean Carey and Beau Golden accuse Sheeran et al of the “blatant copying” of their 2014 song, ‘When I Found You’, released by Jasmine Rae.

The legal action is being led by lawyer Richard Busch, who has become something of a trailblazer in this area, since successfully convincing a jury that Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ was a total rip-off of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got To Give It Up’ in 2015.

Indeed, this isn’t the first time he’s be involved in litigation against Sheeran. He helped songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard sue over similarities between a song they wrote for Matt Cardle – ‘Amazing’ – and Sheeran’s ‘Photograph’. Sheeran settled that case out of court last year.

This new lawsuit states that “the copying 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”.

Among a long list of defendants in the case are Sheeran, McGraw and Hill themselves, plus McDaid and Wadge, Sony Music, Sony/ATV and Universal Music Publishing.

Sony comes in for particular criticism, with the lawsuit claiming that staff at the company were well aware of the similarities between the two songs. It is alleged that Rae’s boyfriend, Tim Holland, a marketing manager at Sony Music Australia, admitted to being aware of the similarities before the McGraw/Hill duet was released.

It is also suggested that someone at Sony may have facilitated the copying, saying: “It very well may have been an agent of Sony Music Entertainment who provided the other defendants herein with access to the [allegedly infringed] song”.

Although also a co-writer of ‘When I Found You’, Jasmine Rae is not involved in the legal action against Sheeran. Carey and Golden are seeking $5 million in damages, as well as ongoing royalties from ‘The Rest Of Our Life’ for as long as it’s in copyright.



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