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Ed Sheeran Is Being Sued For Allegedly Copying A Famous Marvin Gaye Song

The suit claims that ‘Thinking Out Loud’ lifts from ‘Let’s Get It On’

Ed Sheeran has found himself tangled up in another legal battle.

A new lawsuit alleges that the U.K. songwriter copied parts of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 single “Let’s Get It On” in his own song “Thinking Out Loud.”

The lawsuit has been brought forth by the estate of the song’s cowriter, Ed Townshend, who penned “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye in the early ’70s.

“The Defendants copied the heart of ‘Let’s’ and repeated it continuously throughout ‘Thinking,’” reads the suit. “The melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic compositions of ‘Thinking’ are substantially and/or strikingly similar to the drum composition of ‘Let’s.’”

Sheeran became the defendant in another lawsuit in June, when the writers of Matt Cardle’s 2012 song “Amazing” alleged that substantial parts of the song had been copied in Sheeran’s single “Photograph.”

In 2015, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams settled a multimillion dollar lawsuit over another Gaye song. A jury declared that substantial parts of “Got to Give It Up” had been replicated in Thicke’s hit single “Blurred Lines.”

That suit may just have set a new precedent when it comes to new songs with striking similarities to their 20th century forebears.

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