Speculative Sue

I tend to agree with Sheeran here – the idea of speculative legal action designed to extort money from people on the understanding that they probably don’t want to take the matter to court, where they could accrue massive legal bills, is nasty behaviour and in this case, it looks as if the right decision has been reached.

A grime artist who lost his copyright court battle with Ed Sheeran today has broken his silence, saying: ‘This is the beginning not the end.’

Some people, however, just don’t know when to quit. The judge was clear in his judgement, there was no plagiarising. Time to quit while he is behind. I’ve faced a speculative legal threat in the past. Not over this issue, but it was the same thing in that it was an attempted shakedown and the blackmailer in my case knew damned well that I could not afford to go to court. For a while, he had me worried. Unfortunately for him, other victims got together and shared enough information for me to know that he couldn’t either, so I called his bluff and he went away. This needs to happen more often. Sheeran did and it went the full mile. But the outcome was much the same albeit more expensive for those doing the shaking down.

The popstar, 31, lashed out at the ‘baseless claims’ being brought against singer-songwriters ‘with the idea a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court’.

This is what needs to change. At the moment, it’s a case of brinkmanship. If you are certain of your case, then court is probably a worthwhile risk, but it’s still a gamble with no reliable outcome. There needs to be a cheaper way of getting this kind of case thrown out.

But legal experts estimated Chokri will have to fork out ‘high hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not over a £1million’ after losing the battle.

He played the game and lost. My sympathy is non existent.