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☆ Ernie Barnes Paints What It Feels Like to Move
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Will Heinrich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The second thing you notice about an Ernie Barnes painting might be its vibrant color scheme. Anchored in earthy reds and browns, it perfectly complements the artist’s virtuosic, almost musical mastery of space and composition. Or it could be the overflowing warmth with which he depicts Black American life that catches your eye. You may also have encountered one of the thousands of posters and prints which, throughout his career, he made available at modest prices. The first thing you notice about an Ernie Barnes painting will be the distinctively sinuous way he renders human beings.

Persons: Ernie Barnes, Marvin Gaye’s Organizations: Black, Times Locations: ”

☆ Dua Lipa sued in copyright lawsuit over 'Levitating'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Dua Lipa’s hit song ‘Levitating’ is back in court. The star and Warner Music Group are facing a multi-million dollar federal lawsuit in Los Angeles from musician Bosko Kante over copyright claims for the song, which spent 77 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The lawsuit claims Kante is entitled to more than $20 million. Earlier this year, Bad Bunny and some of the music industry’s biggest stars wanted a lawsuit that alleges copyright infringement of a 1989 song thrown out of court. In May, a Manhattan jury found Ed Sheeran did not infringe upon the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” in his hit “Thinking Out Loud.”CNN has reached out to Warner Music Group and representatives for Dua Lipa for comment.

Persons: Dua, Bosko Kante, Kante, ”, Russell Brown, Sandy Linzer, Stephen Kozmeniuk, DaBaby, Taylor Swift, Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Marvin Gaye’s “ Organizations: New, New York CNN, Warner Music Group, Spotify, ” CNN, Dua Locations: New York, Los Angeles, British, Lipa, Manhattan, Dua Lipa

☆ Ed Sheeran Lets His Tears Flow on ‘-’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Jon Pareles | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In February 2022, Sheeran’s close friend Jamal Edwards died at 31; he was a YouTube tastemaker, producer, entrepreneur and D.J. Over the last decade, he has proved himself to be a consummate, driven 21st-century musician: gifted, career-minded and supremely adaptable yet easily recognizable, writing songs that revel in direct language and big feelings. Sheeran has made himself the USB port of pop songwriting, connecting with virtually everything. His new album completes a five-album arc of arithmetic symbols, with “-” following “+” (2011), “x” (2014), “÷” (2017) and “=” (2021). Per its title, “-” was intended to be a stripped-down singer-songwriter album, though Sheeran has by no means renounced big pop choruses.

☆ Ed Sheeran Wins Copyright Case Over Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The case involved only the compositions underlying both tracks — the lyrics, melodies and chords that can be notated on paper — and not their recordings. For older songs like “Let’s Get It On,” copyright is limited to the sheet music, or “deposit copy,” that was originally submitted to the United States Copyright Office. Kathryn Griffin Townsend, Mr. Townsend’s daughter, who wore a tan-colored coat with the word “integrity” emblazoned on the back, said she had filed her suit to protect her father’s legacy. On Day 3 of the trial, the proceedings were interrupted when she collapsed and was taken to a hospital. When Ms. Townsend returned to the courtroom on Monday morning, Mr. Sheeran embraced her.

New York CNN —The jury in the Ed Sheeran copyright infringement case — about whether Sheeran’s smash single “Thinking Out Loud” copied the classic Marvin Gaye song “Let’s Get It On” — deliberated for about five minutes Wednesday evening before the judge sent jury members home. If the jury decides Sheeran is liable for copyright infringement, the trial will move on to the second phase to determine damages. The family of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye, has accused Sheeran of copying the 1973 hit. Earlier, an attorney representing the family suing Sheeran asked the jury Wednesday not to be “blinded by the defendant’s celebrity.”“Mr. Sheeran is counting on you to be very, very overwhelmed by his commercial success,” attorney Keisha Rice said in her closing argument Wednesday.

☆ Ed Sheeran Defends Himself in Court, With His Guitar
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ed Sheeran testified with a guitar on Thursday at a closely watched copyright trial, defending his hit ballad “Thinking Out Loud” against an accusation that he had copied it from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”Cradling his acoustic instrument in a federal courtroom in Manhattan, Mr. Sheeran demonstrated the four-chord sequence at the heart of his song, which he said was written in a few hours in early 2014 with his friend and longtime collaborator Amy Wadge. He recounted just stepping out of the shower of his home when he heard Ms. Wadge strumming the chords, and he remembered thinking: “We need to do something with that.”The song went to No. 1 in Britain and No. 2 in the United States, and in 2016 won a Grammy Award for song of the year. But in 2017, the family of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer, sued for copyright infringement, saying that the chord progression, with its syncopated pattern, was copied from “Let’s Get It On.”Mr. Sheeran has been a regular presence at the trial, which began on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, listening to the testimony of his accusers, who include Kathryn Griffin Townsend, Mr. Townsend’s daughter.

☆ Stolen or Original? Hear Songs From 7 Landmark Copyright Cases.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Here is a guide to some of the most consequential music copyright cases in recent decades, along with excerpts from their recordings. In cases like these, the only material in question are the songs’ underlying compositions: the melodies, chords and lyrics that can be notated on paper. Juries must decide not only if one song copies another, but whether the earlier song was original and distinctive enough to be protected by copyright. “The problem with cases like this is that people ask the wrong question,” said Joe Bennett, a professor at the Berklee College of Music who works as a forensic musicologist in legal cases. “They ask the question, ‘How similar is song B to song A,’ whereas what they should be asking is how original is song A.”Got that?

☆ Ed Sheeran Testifies in Trial Over Alleged Copying of Marvin Gaye Song
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ed Sheeran, arriving to a federal court in New York City, later sparred from the witness stand with the plaintiffs’ lawyers in his trial over alleged copyright-infringement. Photo: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg NewsDid British pop star Ed Sheeran rip off Marvin Gaye’s classic song “Let’s Get It On” when he wrote a Grammy-winning love ballad? A federal jury in New York began considering that question Tuesday in a copyright-infringement trial that could have implications for how songwriters arrange chords to make music.

☆ Ed Sheeran Goes on Trial for Alleged Copying of Marvin Gaye Song
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( James Fanelli | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sheeran is accused of copying “Let’s Get It On” by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 hit with Gaye. Townsend’s daughter Kathryn Townsend Griffin, sister Helen McDonald and the estate of his former wife, Cherrigale Townsend, are the listed plaintiffs on the “Thinking Out Loud” case. In particular he sees melodic similarities in the verse, chorus and interlude of Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud,” he said. British singer Sheeran’s legal team has argued that the sounds used in both songs are common in pop music. “No one owns basic musical building blocks,” Ilene Farkas, Sheeran’s attorney, told the jury in opening remarks Tuesday.

☆ Ed Sheeran, Accused of Copying Marvin Gaye, Testifies He Wrote His Song
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The pop singer Ed Sheeran took the witness stand Tuesday at a closely watched copyright trial in which he stands accused of copying his ballad “Thinking Out Loud” from Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” and told a jury that he and a collaborator had written their song based on their own experiences. “Yes, Amy Wadge and I wrote the song ‘Thinking Out Loud,’” Mr. Sheeran testified, explaining that they created the song, about holding on to romance throughout a long life, after seeing the affection between his aged grandparents. The case was brought by the family of Ed Townsend, a producer and songwriter who created “Let’s Get It On” with Gaye in 1973. They assert that the “heart” of “Let’s Get It On” — a four-chord progression that repeats in a signature syncopated rhythm — was copied by Mr. Sheeran for his track. Lawyers for Mr. Sheeran argue that those elements are basic musical building blocks that are in the public domain and have turned up in numerous other pop songs.

☆ Ed Sheeran Trial: Did He Copy Marvin Gaye? Here’s What to Know.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A closely watched music copyright trial is set to begin Monday in federal court in Manhattan, where a jury will decide a lawsuit accusing Ed Sheeran of copying his Grammy-winning ballad “Thinking Out Loud” from Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On.”Sheeran is expected to testify at the trial, which is getting underway less than two weeks before he plans to release a new album and begin an extensive North American stadium tour. The case, originally filed in 2017, has been delayed multiple times. The music industry is keenly interested in the outcome. The trend began in 2015 when a jury found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, in their hit “Blurred Lines,” had infringed on the copyright of another Gaye tune, “Got to Give It Up,” and they were ordered to pay more than $5 million in damages. The case shocked many legal experts — and musicians — who believed that Thicke and Williams were being penalized for using basic musical building blocks, like harmonies and rhythmic patterns, that had long been considered part of the public domain.

☆ When Songs Sound Similar, Courts Look for Musical DNA
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On the surface, Ed Sheeran and Led Zeppelin might not seem to have a lot in common. Led Zeppelin is a classic-rock colossus whose molten riffs are part of the foundation of heavy metal. Yet when it comes to the recent history of copyright litigation in music, Sheeran and Led Zeppelin are practically joined at the hip. In some ways, “Thinking Out Loud” bears an obvious resemblance to “Let’s Get It On.” They share nearly identical chord progressions and similar bass lines. (In this case, performance elements in the recordings are irrelevant; the suit involves only the underlying compositions.)

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