Ed Sheeran regrets settling copyright case for Photograph in 2017

English pop star Ed Sheeran has expressed regret for settling a copyright infringement case for his single Photograph in 2017. The 31-year-old pop singer had faced a £13.8 million, which was approximately $24.8 million at the time, for the copyright case.

Talking to BBC’s Newsnight, Ed Sheeran said,

"I think from there... the floodgates opened and they go, 'Well if you did that then....' I think that has added into this basically. I didn't play Photograph for ages after that. I just stopped playing it. I felt weird about it, it kind of made me feel dirty."

According to the singer, he was advised to settle back then as the culture around copyright cases was such that he would lose.

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Ed Sheeran now films his songwriting sessions

The Photograph singer noted that he now keeps all his songwriting sessions on record (Image via Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

During the interview, the singer revealed that he now films all of his songwriting sessions to avoid future problems.

He said,

"I just film everything, everything is on film. We've had claims come through on the songs and we go, 'Well here's the footage and you watch. You'll see there's nothing there.'"

He further noted that he second-guesses himself in the recording studio. He shared,

"There's the George Harrison point where he said he's scared to touch the piano because he might be touching someone else's note. There is definitely a feeling of that in the studio."

He further added,

"I personally think the best feeling in the world is the euphoria around the first idea of writing a great song. That feeling has now turned into, 'Oh wait, let's stand back for a minute'. You find yourself in the moment, second-guessing yourself."

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Ed Sheeran wins latest lawsuit

The singer recently won a copyright lawsuit against singer Sami Chokri, who had claimed that Sheeran’s Shape of You from the album Divide was strikingly similar to his song Oh Why. Judge Justice Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran did not deliberately copy the phrase from Sami Chokri, who goes by Sami Switch.

Chokri had claimed that he had shared his track with Sheeran’s inner circle in hopes of working with him. However, the singer never got back to him and released Shape of You a short while later. The judge ruled the case in favor of Ed Sheeran, saying that based on his knowledge of musical elements, there was enough evidence to show that OI Phrase originated from sources other than Oh Why.