Ed Sheeran is facing a $20 million (£13.8m) lawsuit for “copying” a song, which was released by Matt Cardle in 2011.
The two songwriters, who wrote the X Factor single Amazing, have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in California, claiming that Ed’s song Photograph has the same musical composition.
Matt’s single reached number 84 in the UK charts, and received one million YouTube hits, opposed to Ed’s song which sold more than 3.5 millions copies worldwide and has over 200 million YouTube views.
Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, the two songwriters, are seeking a jury trial, royalties from the song and damages in excess of $20 million.
According to the lawsuit, Photograph shares 39 identical notes with the single Amazing and there are a similarity of “words, vocal style, vocal melody, melody and rhythm”.
Other named defendants include Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid, credited as a co-writer of Photograph, units of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner Music Group and its subsidiary, Atlantic Recording Corporation.
Accordding to Sky News, the complaint reads: “This copying is, in many instances, verbatim, note-for-note copying, makes up nearly one half of Photograph, and raises this case to the unusual level of strikingly similar copying.”
The attorney, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the songwriting pair, is Richard Busch, who recently represented the family of Marvin Gaye who won their copyright case against Robin Thicke for Blurred Lines.
Last year, Robin and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay $7.3 million in copyright infringement for similarities in Blurred Lines to that of Marvin Gaye’s Got To Give It Up.
In December Ed, 25, announced he was taking a break from social media to have the opportunity to “be anywhere or do anything to travel the world and see everything I missed [sic]”.
And the popular singer hasn’t returned to his Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to comment on the current lawsuit against him.
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