<story><title>Ed Sheeran demonstrates how copyright is destroying musicians</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/08/ed-sheeran-once-again-demonstrates-how-modern-copyright-is-destroying-rather-than-helping-musicians/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gamblor956</author><text>Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s estate is one of the most notorious copyright trolls in the music industry. We&amp;#x27;ve only heard about the big songs (Sheeran, Blurred Lines) but they&amp;#x27;ve gone after a number of indie musicians as well.</text></item><item><author>juliusdavies</author><text>I see Ed Sheeran&amp;#x27;s (as well as Katy Perry&amp;#x27;s) successful copyright defenses as evidence song writers are doing fine. Katy Perry&amp;#x27;s earlier defeat (for Dark Horse) luckily reversed on appeal last year. Toni Basil also had an interesting copyright victory last year related to 1980&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Mickey&amp;quot; - although her result seems very narrow and technical (related to copyright termination and works-for-hire) and only about the recording, since she never wrote the song in the first place.&lt;p&gt;Whereas Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s heirs&amp;#x27; successful litigation against Blurred Lines is very concerning (see: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jonesday.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;insights&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;blurred-lines-between-inspiration-and-infringement&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jonesday.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;insights&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;blurred-lines-b...&lt;/a&gt; ), although as has long been the case with copyright litigation in the USA - it really all depends on the jury !&lt;p&gt;Personally, when I listen to Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Got To Give It Up&amp;quot; right next to &amp;quot;Blurred Lines&amp;quot; I really cannot comprehend the jury&amp;#x27;s result. I guess they both employ a cowbell very prominently?  But I wasn&amp;#x27;t a member of the jury, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t up to me. I find the Katy Perry result to be at least a little bit of a close call based on my own listening.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>masklinn</author><text>I recently learned that the Eagles is also a big one: they will copyright-strike any cover, no ifs, no buts.&lt;p&gt;Not share earnings, not demonitize, straight to strike.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ed Sheeran demonstrates how copyright is destroying musicians</title><url>https://www.techdirt.com/2023/05/08/ed-sheeran-once-again-demonstrates-how-modern-copyright-is-destroying-rather-than-helping-musicians/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gamblor956</author><text>Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s estate is one of the most notorious copyright trolls in the music industry. We&amp;#x27;ve only heard about the big songs (Sheeran, Blurred Lines) but they&amp;#x27;ve gone after a number of indie musicians as well.</text></item><item><author>juliusdavies</author><text>I see Ed Sheeran&amp;#x27;s (as well as Katy Perry&amp;#x27;s) successful copyright defenses as evidence song writers are doing fine. Katy Perry&amp;#x27;s earlier defeat (for Dark Horse) luckily reversed on appeal last year. Toni Basil also had an interesting copyright victory last year related to 1980&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Mickey&amp;quot; - although her result seems very narrow and technical (related to copyright termination and works-for-hire) and only about the recording, since she never wrote the song in the first place.&lt;p&gt;Whereas Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s heirs&amp;#x27; successful litigation against Blurred Lines is very concerning (see: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jonesday.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;insights&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;blurred-lines-between-inspiration-and-infringement&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jonesday.com&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;insights&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;blurred-lines-b...&lt;/a&gt; ), although as has long been the case with copyright litigation in the USA - it really all depends on the jury !&lt;p&gt;Personally, when I listen to Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;Got To Give It Up&amp;quot; right next to &amp;quot;Blurred Lines&amp;quot; I really cannot comprehend the jury&amp;#x27;s result. I guess they both employ a cowbell very prominently?  But I wasn&amp;#x27;t a member of the jury, so it wasn&amp;#x27;t up to me. I find the Katy Perry result to be at least a little bit of a close call based on my own listening.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>h0l0cube</author><text>&amp;gt; Marvin Gaye&amp;#x27;s estate&lt;p&gt;Not precisely (or at least not in this instance), from TFA:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The claim over Thinking Out Loud was originally lodged in 2018, not by Gaye’s family but by investment banker David Pullman and a company called Structured Asset Sales, which has acquired a portion of the estate of Let’s Get It On co-writer Ed Townsend.</text></comment>