LONDON – Ed Sheeran and his songwriting partners have been awarded more than £900,000 ($1.1 million) in legal costs after scoring a victory in a high-profile copyright case over his 2017’s global hit “Shape of You” Billboard reported.
In April, Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran and his “Shape of You” co-writers, Steven McCutcheon and Johnny McDaid, did not “deliberately nor subconsciously” infringe a 2015 song called “Oh Why” by a fellow U.K. artist named Sami Chokri, who performs as Sami Switch.
The ruling came nearly four years after Chokri and his producer Ross O’Donoghue first accused Sheeran and his collaborators of copying a key part of their song and incorporating it into “Shape of You,” which spent 12 weeks atop the Hot 100.
Chokri and O’Donoghue alleged that the “Oh I” hook in “Shape of You” was “strikingly similar” to the “Oh Why” refrain from their own composition. The trio denied the claims and launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the UK’s High Court to declare they had not infringed any copyright.
The case culminated in an 11-day trial in London in March and April that saw Sheeran repeatedly take the stand, where he faced accusations that he was a “magpie” who habitually borrows ideas from other songwriters.
Following the April 6 High Court ruling, lawyers acting on behalf of Chokri and O’Donoghue argued that the claimants (Sheeran, McCutcheon, McDaid) should be deprived of all their costs due to their “conduct… both before and during the proceedings.”
Specifically, Chokri and O’Donoghue’s lawyers allege that Sheeran’s legal team failed to engage in pre-action correspondence and failed to disclose voice notes and project files relating to how “Shape of You” was written that would ultimately prove key to the case. The defendants also said that Sheeran’s team had “demonstrated ‘awkwardness and opacity’ so as to strengthen [their] conviction that infringement had occurred.”
The judge did not accept those accusations and ruled that Sheeran and his co-writers were entitled to receive an “interim payment” of £916,200, to be paid by Chokri and O’Donoghue. A detailed assessment of the costs due will now be carried out by another senior judge, who could decide to disallow some part of the claimants’ costs and reduce the total payment due.
4 years ago Jamaican entertainer Ishawna did her own rendition of Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” causing much uproar in the dancehall community. Since then Sheeran himself has given her the thumbs up for her remix and recorded new dancehall music with with Equal Rights singer.
Sheeran told Qmusic Nederland,
“There are so many remixes of it, I was in the Caribbean, and I heard like a totally different song, It is really really filthy, but she is just singing about her man going down on her”. He said candidly.
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In another interview with Chuckie Online on the Halfcast podcast Sheeran shared that he was on his way to recording his verse for a song with Ishawna.
The song is yet to be released but Ishawna posted a clip from the podcast last November highlighting the Sheeran collab.
Ishawna used the popular track from “Shape Of You” to spit dancehall lyrics about granting sexual favors as long as it is returned. Some of which are considered taboo in tradtional dancehall culture.
Bounty Killer made a posted threats against Ishawna warning her not to sing the song at a concert they were both billed to perform.
Ishawna responded “Bring it on Rodney” on her Instagram post. She went on to perform the song in his presence at the event in Portland Jamaica to massive approval from the crowd.
During his performance at the show Bounty Killer said, “Weh the clean mouth gal dem deh now, me heard some a unuh a sing some sumn” before launching launching into a tirade performance.
Other artists even refused to use the same mic as Ishawna whenever she was booked for a show.
Sheeran who has been accused of cultural appropriation by a new Zealand music critic said he is aware of the love he gets from Jamaican artist. To show his approval he sings in patois lines from some of the remixes he has heard of “Shape Of You”.
“..You have the best Pu**y, you know mi like to f*ckin sponteanous..” he sings.
Ed Sheeran began recording music in 2004 and released his first collection of work, tiled Spinning Man
He has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling music artists. He has 84.5 million RIAA-certified units in the US, and two of his albums are in the list of the best-selling albums in UK chart history.
