Sheeran settles 14 mn pounds copyright lawsuit over 'Photograph'

Grammy Award-winning singer Ed Sheeran has struck a deal to end a 14 million pounds copyright infringement lawsuit brought by two songwriters over his hit track "Photograph".

This week, a judge in California announced that Sheeran and the two songwriters -- Martin Harrington and American Thomas Leonard -- had reached an agreement and the case was being dismissed. The judge did not make public details of the settlement.

Mirror.co.uk had contacted Sheeran's representative for comment.

Harrington and Leonard sued the singer last June, claiming "Photograph" was a "verbatim, note-for-note copying" of their song "Amazing", which was recorded by "The X Factor" winner Matt Cardle in 2012.

In their legal documents, they said: "The similarities go beyond substantial, which is itself sufficient to establish copyright infringement and are in fact striking."

They continued to allege that Sheeran and his songwriting partner Johnny McDaid had "copied and exploited, without authorisation or credit, the work of other active, professional songwriters on a breathtaking scale".

"This copying is, in many instances, verbatim, note-for-note copying, makes up nearly one half of 'Photograph', and raises this case to the unusual level of strikingly similar copying," they said.

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