Being original can be hard in a world which produces billions of art every day. Same goes for some of the most popular musicians, who were sued with the claims of copying others’ music.
Here are some examples of the songs that ended up in court after the claims that they were plagiarized:
1. Ed Sheeran – Shape of You
In 2017, Ed Sheeran fought the battle against Sami Chokri’s claims that he violated copyrights and plagiarised Chokri’s song “Oh Why”.
Sami Chokri, who goes under the stage name Sami Switch, claimed that part of Ed’s song “Shape of You” sounds too similar to his song “Oh Why”.
Ed won the court case and added coincidence is bound to happen with the number of pop songs produced daily.
You can check Sami’s song here and compare for yourself:
2. Lana del Ray – Get Free
After Lana released her album “Lust for Life”, Radiohead’s representative noticed that the last song, “Get Free” sounds a lot like “Creep”, the most popular Radiohead song and definitely the one that made them a breakthrough.
Lana denied any claims made against her, saying she wasn’t inspired by “Creep” and she is unwilling to 100% of the royalties that Radiohead asked for.
Lana settled to give out 40% of the publishing, but Radiohead’s lawyers wouldn’t accept anything less than 100%.
Later on, Radiohead’s lawyers denied taking further action but demanded a written credit to be added to Lana’s song.
You can compare these two songs by visiting:
3. Radiohead – Creep
Ironically enough, Radiohead’s “Creep” was also sued for copyright infringement when it came out in 1992.
The band “The Hollies” noticed similarities of “Creep” to their song “The Air That I Breathe”, a hit that came out in 1974.
Radiohead was allegedly sued by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, but, at last, they settled the argument out of court, and Hammond and Hazlewood were given credits for the song.
You can check for yourself if “Creep” reminds you of “The Air That I Breathe” by visiting this link:
4. Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines
After Robin Thicke released his song in 2013, belated Martin Gaye’s family noticed similarities with Gaye’s song “Got to give it up”, and sued Thicke for copyright infringement.
Along with Thicke, his co-writer Pharell Williams and the rapper T.I. were also mentioned in the trial, as was the music company Universal Records, under which this song was put out.
The Jury found them guilty of copying Gaye’s song and were charged to pay the fee of 5.3 million dollars. Half of the future royalties of the song “Blurred Lines” is also assigned to belong to Martin Gaye’s family.
