Ed Sheeran reflects on "Shape of You" copyright trial: "Now I just film everything"

Earlier this month Mr. Justice Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran had not plagiarised part of a song titled "Oh Why" by Sami Switch, real name Sami Chokri in his own "Shape of You" hit. Sheeran shared a video message about the case after the trial, as well as a joint statement with co-writers Johnny McDaid (Snow Patrol) and Steve Mac.

In the video, Sheeran revealed they were happy with the outcome, but said the initial claims are "way too common now," and added that it's "really damaging to the songwriting industry."

Last Friday (8 April) Sheeran spoke to BBC Newsnight about the case, revealing that he's been filming every session as a precaution since experiencing a claim on his 2014 song "Photograph".

Sheeran said, "Now I just film everything, everything is on film. We’ve had claims come through on the songs and we go, ‘Well here’s the footage and you watch. You’ll see there’s nothing there'."

He continued, "There’s the George Harrison point where he said he’s scared to touch the piano because he might be touching someone else’s note. There is definitely a feeling of that in the studio. I personally think the best feeling in the world is the euphoria around the first idea of writing a great song. That feeling has now turned into, ‘Oh wait, let’s stand back for a minute.'"

"I didn't play Photograph for ages after that... I felt weird about it, it kind of made me feel dirty."

Ed Sheeran tells #Newsnight he regrets settling a previous multi-million pound copyright dispute as it opened the floodgates to other claimshttps://t.co/MNvpv3ejzY pic.twitter.com/dxwjurfHfn

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 8, 2022