oh! also! while we’re on the subject of pride month and Damien and A Neon Darkness, that character of course would be NOTHING without the incredible voice behind him - Charlie Ian. the audiobook of AND is sO GOOD CHARLIE IS SO GOOD and also Charlie is a trans woman and uses she/her pronouns and she and I both thought people might like to know that!!!!
What I hope people understand is that so many artists would “have to quit” music if Ed loses this one. If chord progressions and drum beats (not samples) become copyrightable aspects of a work, infringement is going to reach insanity & it’ll to be a shitshow if this is precedence
I’m posting this because I’ve seen memes going around cheering for Sheeran to lose “because haha then he quits music”. I think the people sharing them mostly aren’t aware of what an awful precedent this would have set. You do NOT want chord progressions and drum beats to become copyrightable
In general, when you hear about a lawsuit involving copyright / intellectual property (including “plagiarism”), you should be skeptical. When you hear explicit calls to expand intellectual property law, you should be hostile. I’m more and more unsettled by how credulous people on this website (and in general) are toward “progressive” framings of IP law, especially the notion that intellectual property somehow Protects Artists. It does not exist for the sake of working artists, it was created by and for capitalists
I detest Ed Sheeran’s music, I resent every second of his work that I’ve been subjected to, but I’m also not a fucking rube
Including his comments below because they’re accurate:
“We’ve
spent the last eight years talking about two songs with dramatically
different lyrics, melodies, and four chords which are also different and
used by songwriters every day all over the world,” Sheeran said
Thursday.
“These
chords are common building blocks which were used to create music long
before ‘Let’s Get It On’ was written and will be used to make music long
after we are all gone. They are in a songwriter’s alphabet, our
toolkit, and should be there for all of us to use. No one owns them or
the way they are played in the same way that nobody owns the color
blue.”
[Image description: A traditional drawing of Wayne McCullough and Del Luccetti from the show Wayne. The piece uses oil pastels, bold colours, and depicts the pair in a bathroom. Del is laying in the bathtub, leaning on the side of it with her hand raised above her face. She’s smiling contently, and her eyes are closed. Meanwhile, Wayne is sitting next to the tub. He’s hunched slightly, and his hands are clasped together. Though he’s looking at her, his gaze is spaced out and his face neutral. While certain details of the background, like the toilet or soap dispenser, are in focus, the wall is scrawled in aimlessly.]
