Copy, Paste, or Create? The Music Industry’s Thin Line
Judy Li | May 7, 2026
In the current music landscape, artists’ creations are amplified among a much larger audience than in the previous twenty years of the century. Through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and other short-video apps, the boundary between inspiration and imitation has become increasingly blurred. While this new prospect of social media fosters further creativity among artists through sampling and remixing, it also raises questions and risks of legal and ethical issues, including plagiarism and copyright infringement. Although these two issues are related, they operate differently under a legal context, especially with their effects on artists and their works. We will examine two high-profile cases—Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” and Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers”—that relate to copyright and plagiarism to better understand the distinction between the two terms and their relationship to the entertainment industry.
Firstly, we need to understand the surface distinction between plagiarism and copyright infringement. Plagiarism’s definition is “the borrowing or copying of another individual’s work without giving due credit and representing it as one’s own original work.” In contrast, copyright infringement refers to the legal issue that arises when a piece of protected material is used without permission from the copyright holder. Plagiarism is a much broader concept that covers beyond the issues protected by copyright laws, such as ideas, syntax, or even the sort of atmosphere the song brings to the air. Copyright ownership is limited to a certain time period, depending on the nature of the creation. In conclusion, plagiarism should be seen as more of an ethical/moral concept in the industry, while copyrights cover the legal aspect.
Through the case surrounding Ed Sheeran’s alleged plagiarism in the song “Thinking Out Loud”, the distinction becomes clearer. This song of the year at the 2016 Grammys was accused of copying elements from Martin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” and the court case dragged on for over ten years. The case took so long due to the dispute involving multiple lawsuits, appeals, and technical copyright questions about which parts of the song were legally protected, not just whether the two songs sounded similar. In the summer of 2025, the case was finally closed with the ruling in Sheeran’s favor. The producers of Gaye’s song claimed that the two songs share a similar syncopated chord pattern, which Sheeran’s team also admitted to. However, the chords were characterized in court as “building blocks” of pop music, which had also been used in dozens of songs even before Gaye’s hit song was recorded in 1973. In this case, you could tell that plagiarism is subjective and often an unstable claim, whereas copyright infringement requires procedures to claim and specific protected elements to be copied. In addition, Sheeran’s decision and persistence in fighting the court case for ten long years instead of simply settling shows how allegations of plagiarism could deeply affect artists and their future image in the public realm.
On the other hand, Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” lawsuit shows how more concrete evidence is needed to lead to copyright charges. The claim alleged that Cyrus’s song duplicates numerous melodic, harmonic, and lyrical elements of Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man”, placing focus on much more identifiable components that are clearly protected under copyright law. Cyrus was denied by the judge in dismissing the copyright lawsuit in March 2025, and the case is still ongoing as of today. There is a much greater chance that Cyrus faces legal consequences if the court evaluates that the melody, lyrics, and arrangement are in measurable similarity to Mars’s song and determines that these protected elements are used without authorization.
As music becomes more widely distributed in the digital era, the stakes of such disputes like above greatly increase. Artists, producers, and media companies must watch their productions of music closely, as even a coincidence could severely damage an artist’s credibility. The outcomes of plagiarism accusations like those involving Sheeran and Cyrus not only affect the individuals involved but also set precedents for the industry on how fairness and legal integrity are instituted.
Sources
https://www.ijlsi.com/wp-content/uploads/Plagiarism-A-Tortious-Act.pdf
