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Ed Sheeran has secured another victory in his recent copyright trial after a British judge awarded the singer over USD 1.1 million in costs, a sum representing approximately 90 per cent of Sheeran's legal bill.
As per Variety, Judge Antony Zacaroli while explaining his decision to award Sheeran such substantial costs, wrote in his judgment: "The starting point is to identify the winners and losers in the action because the general rule is that the unsuccessful party pays the costs of the successful party. There is no dispute as to this; Sheeran undoubtedly won and won on every substantial point." In April, Judge Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran did not plagiarize a 2015 song called 'Oh Why' by Sami Chokri in his hit song 'Shape of You.' Sheeran co-wrote 'Shape of You' with Snow Patrol singer Johnny McDaid and producer Steve Mac (using his legal name of Steven McCutcheon during the trial), who co-wrote the storyline. Chokri's legal team, through a publicity campaign and common friends including SBTV founder Jamal Edwards, had argued that Sheeran had the opportunity to listen to and plagiarize Chokri's track. However, in the judgement, Mr Zararoli said, "I do not accept this. Mr Chokri is undoubtedly a serious and talented songwriter and while his management were unsurprisingly trying to create some hype around the release of the Solace EP, it had limited success. In my judgment, the possibility that these attempts might have led to it coming to Mr Sheeran's attention - either because someone he was associated with playing it to him or because he found it himself - is at best speculative." As per Variety, following Judge Zacaroli's ruling, Sheeran in April, released a video statement in which he said, "Whilst we're obviously happy with the result I feel like claims like this are way too common now and we've become a culture where a claim is made with the idea that settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there is no base to the claim. It's really damaging to the songwriting industry." Sheeran is believed to be still fighting another copyright lawsuit over his song 'Thinking Out Loud,' and in 2016 he was sued over the song 'Photograph.' This case was settled out of court. (ANI)
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