Matt Cardle speaks out about Ed Sheeran lawsuit: 'I think Ed is a genius'
He added: 'This is not my lawsuit'
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Your support makes all the difference.Earlier today, Ed Sheeran was hit with a $20m (£13.8m) for allegedly ripping off X Factor winner Matt Cardle’s song “Amazing”.
As we reported, songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard allege that Sheeran copied the song “verbatim, note-for-note” on his track “Photograph”.
Cardle is not involved with the case and has since Tweeted his support for Sheeran, writing: “Please read news articles closely. This is not my lawsuit. I think Ed Sheeran is a genius and 100 percent deserves all his success”.
According to the plaintiffs, the choruses to both songs share “39 identical notes,” adding: “The similarities go beyond substantial, which is itself sufficient to establish copyright infringement and are in fact striking.”
They also say that, despite being aware of the lawsuit, Sheeran continued to perform the number-one ballad, recently licensing for the Emilia Clarke starring Me Before You.
Harrington and Leonard, who have also written songs for Kylie Minogue and Emma Bunton, will seek statutory damages and either a running royalty or injunction.
They will be represented by Richard Busch, the same attorney who won the copyright infringement case against Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams on behalf of Marvin Gaye’s family last year. The singers were ordered to pay £5.3 million for copying Gaye’s 1977 song “Got To Give It Up” for their 2013 summer hit “Blurred Lines”.
Sheeran’s representatives are yet to comment on the lawsuit. Cardle is not involved in the lawsuit.
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