Tag: plagiarism
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Ed Sheeran charged to court over plagiarism allegation
Ed Sheeran, a British singer, has been charged in court with plagiarism of Marvin Gaye’s song. A federal judge ordered the singer to stand trial in response to allegations that he plagiarised Marvin Gaye’s 1973 hit song “Let’s Get It On” on his 2014 track “Thinking Out Loud.” In his court application, Ed Sheeran contended that the copyright claims were “baseless” and “far too frequent.” The plaintiffs, however, claim that Ed Sheeran and his writing partner, Amy Wadge, plagiarised and exploited the Marvin Gaye song without permission or credit, “including but not limited to the melody, rhythms, harmonies, drums, bass line, backing chorus, tempo, syncopation, and looping,” and they are seeking $100 million (£90 million) in damages. The trial date, on the other hand, is yet to be set. This is not the singer’s first legal battle. A lawsuit was recently filed against him and his songwriting partners, John McDaid and Steven McCutcheon, alleging that the chorus of their song “Shape of You” was lifted word for word from Ross O’Donoghue and Sami Chokri’s 2015 single, “Oh Why.” During the March 2022 trial, the High Court Judge ruled that the imitation was not done “purposefully or unconsciously.” Ed and his co-defendants were awarded costs of £900,000 afterwards. Upon the court’s decision, Ed communicated his hope on his Instagram page that it would put an end to further frivolous claims. -
Taylor Swift hit with new lawsuit for copyright infringement
The Target-only notebooks that accompanied Taylor Swift’s seventh studio album, Lover, allegedly plagiarized Teresa La Dart’s 2010 poetry collection of the same name, according to a new lawsuit the novelist and poet has filed against Swift. La Dart allegedly claimed that Swift’s notebooks “contained a number of creative aspects that mimicked the expressive patterns and arrangements” of her own collection of poetry, according to documents obtained by Parade. In essence, she believes Swift plagiarized the atmosphere of her book, including the color scheme, the image groupings, and the historical reflection. The diary was published in four separate iterations by Swift, each of which featured unique scans of writings from her childhood journals, handwritten song lyrics, and images arranged almost like a scrapbook at the beginning and conclusion of the first section. Each book’s second half is made up of blank journal pages, and the covers of the journals and the corresponding albums are identical. According to La Dart, Swift’s Lover book, which attributes all creative credit to Swift, contains “substantially” similar formats, including the placement of “interspersed photographs and writings throughout” and the “recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components.” La Dart, who claims Swift generated more than $1 million in revenues from utilizing her work, has asked for a jury trial and is suing to recoup all of those earnings. Swift is yet to respond to the accusations, but La Dart’s attorney told Pitchfork as paraphrased, “Glad to share some perspective as many critics seem to think this was badly conducted.”