Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Trial: “Independently” Created Song, Jury Rules

Sheeran stood up and hugged his legal team when the jury determined that he had “independently” created his song, a reporter for the AFP inside the courtroom.

Sheeran came to defend himself in the New York court where the trial was held by taking out the guitar and interpreting his own song. “Chords are the alphabet of music”, he went so far as to say, pointing out the “coincidences” between the Beatles’ “Let it be” and “No woman no cry”.

Sheeran, who has already won a similar trial in the United Kingdom, even threatened to retire from music if he lost it.

“If it had happened, I would have left it at that moment,” he declared after celebrating the victory with his lawyer Ilene Farkas. “It’s insulting for someone to devote themselves to music and for someone to come along and try to throw it to the ground.”

The Townsend family’s lawyers even offered as evidence a live concert in which Sheeran merged the two songs. The singer defended himself by claiming that this is something he usually does with other songs at his concerts and that it would have been absurd to “give himself away” in this way in front of 20,000 spectators.