Judge to Ed Sheeran: Let’s Get It (This Plagiarism Trial) On

Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Ed Sheeran’s been really trying, baby. Trying to hold back this lawsuit for so long. But if you feel like the judge feels, then come on. Oh, come on (to serve on this jury). A US judge has ruled on the plagiarism suit against Sheeran for allegedly ripping off “Let’s Get It On” in his 2014 song “Thinking Out Loud.” The suit was filed way back in 2016 by the family of “Let’s Get It On” co-author Ed Townsend, and will now be ruled on by a jury. Surely, that will be the most people who have listened to “Thinking Out Loud” together in a non-wedding dance context. According to the BBC, District Judge Louis Stanton found “substantial similarities between several of the two works’ musical elements,” and said that jurors could watch a video of Sheeran “seamlessly transitioning” between the two songs. He was not swayed by Sheeran’s lawyers’ almost prudish argument that the two songs vary substantially in content. “Sheeran’s defense team has argued that ‘Thinking Out Loud’ is different because it has ‘sombre, melancholic tones, addressing long lasting romantic love’ while ‘Let’s Get It On’ is characterized as a ‘sexual anthem.’” You can listen to both the Ode to Somber Love and the Sexual Anthem below and decide for yourself.