Two U.S. musicians have filed a $20 million plagiarism lawsuit against Ed Sheeran over his hit single “Photograph.” The artists, Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, claim Sheeran’s chart-topping hit is markedly similar to their tune “Amazing,” which they wrote in 2009 and was released in 2012, sung by a winner of the British TV talent show The X-Factor. Leonard and Harrington argue that the chorus of “Photograph” shares 39 identical notes with “Amazing,” adding that the similarities between the songs are “instantly recognizable to the ordinary observer.” The lawsuit says: “The copying of ‘Amazing’ by ‘Photograph’ is breathtaking in its deliberateness, magnitude, and hubris.” The claimants are being represented by lawyer Richard Busch, who won the late Marvin Gaye’s family a monster $5.3 million payment in the “Blurred Lines” copyright verdict.
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