Edward Christopher Sheeran, professionally known as Ed Sheeran, has emerged victorious in a copyright case for his hit song Shape Of You and will be awarded $1.1-million (R17.6-million).
This after an artist who goes by the name Sami Chokri, but performs under the name Sami Switch, said Sheeran had infringed on his copyright and plagiarised the main hook of his song Oh Why.
According to international reports, the Performing Rights Society had suspended Sheeran’s payments for the song and the case was brought to the high court in London. The court, after having gone through 11 days of hearings, ruled that Sheeran had not copied the song intentionally.
The Law Gazette quoted the high court judge as saying the defendant acted precipitously by telling the Performing Rights Society to be credited as songwriters, leading to the suspension of all payments to Sheeran.
“The commencement of proceedings was a reasonable reaction in circumstances where it was fair to see the defendants’ conduct as a tactic to extract a settlement,” the judge ruled.
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