The Ed Sheeran problem, or, how the record industry got what it asked for
A dog that caught the bus wheel.
You might have seen Ed Sheeran's triumphant statement about his victory in a copyright lawsuit that alleged he'd copied elements of Sami Switch's "Oh Why" in his song "Shape Of You":
https://twitter.com/edsheeran/status/1511631955238047751
Sheeran's statement makes two critical points: first, that there are only so many ways of arranging English words and musical phrases, and 60,000 new songs being released to Spotify every day, there will inevitably be some coincidental duplications of words and melodies.
That's an idea that's been in the air for a hell of a long time. Spider Robinson won a Hugo in 1983 for a short story…
