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https://www.techdirt.com/2022/10/12/ed-sheeran-just-cant-get-away-from-ridiculous-copyright-lawsuits/>
"We’ve written a bunch about how Ed Sheeran recognizes how batshit crazy
current copyright law is. One of the most successful recording artists today,
you’d think that maybe he’d be a copyright maximalist, and yet copyright just
seems to keep getting in the way of his creativity. Sheeran has admitted that
piracy made him successful. When he started out as an independent artist, he
says it was people sharing his music through pirate sites that built up his fan
base, eventually leading to his record deals. He’s also been supportive of fans
who got hit with copyright claims for covering his songs.
But, at the same time, he keeps getting sued with questionable claims of
copyright infringement. Earlier this year, he won one of the key lawsuits
against him, including having the plaintiff have to pay his legal fees.
However, he admitted to what a strain it’s been putting on his ability to
create music, releasing a video statement saying:
I feel like claims like this are way too common now, and have become a
culture where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be
cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no basis for the claim.
It’s really damaging to the songwriting industry.
There’s only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music.
Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day
on Spotify—that’s 22 million songs a year—and there’s only 12 notes that are
available.
I don’t want to take anything away from the pain and hurt suffered from both
sides of this case, but I just want to say, I’m not an entity. I’m not a
corporation. I’m a human being. I’m a father, I’m a husband, I’m a son.
Lawsuits are not a pleasant experience. And I hope that with this ruling, in
the future baseless claims like this can be avoided. This really does have
to end.
Me, Johnny, and Steve, are very grateful for all the support sent to us by
fellow songwriters over the last few weeks. Hopefully, we can all get back
to writing songs, rather than having to prove that we can write them.
Except, he can’t just get back to writing songs, because a court has said he
has to go to trial over yet another one of these silly lawsuits. And, as Glyn
Moody highlights, while this lawsuit is over a Marvin Gaye song, it’s not even
the Gaye estate that brought the lawsuit. An investment banker bought the
rights and is suing Sheeran to get free cash."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
