Songs that Resulted in Copyright Lawsuits

You may have heard of Ed Sheeran’s legal battle alleging his song “Thinking Out Loud” copied Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On.” But did you know how often this happens? Some of the many famous copyright cases in music include:

1. “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. was involved in a high-profile copyright lawsuit with the estate of Marvin Gaye, who claimed that the song plagiarized Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.”
2. “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin was sued by the estate of Randy California, the late guitarist of the band Spirit, who claimed that the opening notes of “Stairway to Heaven” were lifted from Spirit’s song “Taurus.”
3. “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison was sued by the publisher of the Chiffons’ song “He’s So Fine,” who claimed that Harrison’s hit song plagiarized the melody of “He’s So Fine.”
4. “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars was sued by the funk group Collage, who claimed that the song copied elements of their song “Young Girls.”
5. “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice was sued by the publisher of Queen and David Bowie’s song “Under Pressure,” who claimed that the famous bassline of “Ice Ice Baby” was taken from “Under Pressure.”
6. “Stay With Me” by Sam Smith was involved in a copyright dispute with Tom Petty’s publishers, who claimed that the song sounded similar to Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”
7. Taylor Swift’s massive single, “Shake It Off” was alleged to contain similarities to a 2001 song, “Playas Gon’ Play” written for the girl group 3LW.
8. Russell Brown and Sandy Linzer alleged that Dua Lipa stole from two of their songs — “Wiggle and Giggle All Night” (1979) and “Don Diablo” (1980).

Famous Copyright Infringement Cases in Music

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