British artist Ed Sheeran expressed joy and relief on Thursday when he heard a verdict from a jury in a Manhattan court that ruled he had not plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s song “Let’s Get It On” in composing his worldwide hit “Thinking Out Loud”.

Sheeran stood up and hugged his legal team when he heard the jury felt he made his song “independent” in 2014, which he says is good news for creative freedom.

The musician told reporters he was “very happy” but “incredibly frustrated that a baseless lawsuit” like this had gone to trial.

The Civil lawsuit filed by estate of Ed Townsend, co-writer of Gaye’s hitalleging that Sheeran had used the harmonic progression and rhythmic elements of Gaye’s classic without permission.

The heirs they were looking for a share of the profits the song made for Sheeran.

“If the jury had decided otherwise, we might have had to say goodbye to composers’ creative freedom,” Sheeran told reporters out of court.

“It’s devastating and insulting to be accused of stealing other people’s songs when we do so much to make a living,” he added. “I’m just a guy with a guitar who likes to write music for people to enjoy,” he said before adding, “I am and will not allow myself to be a piggy bank shaken .”

“Alphabet of Composers”

It took the jury nearly three hours to decide whether Sheeran’s song and Gaye’s classic were substantially similar and whether their common components are copyrighted.

Sheeran, 32, testified over several days, sometimes guitar in hand, play to prove to the jury that the 1-3-4-5 chord progression in question is a basic block of popular music that belongs to no one.

The English singer said he writes most of his songs in a day, assuring that he co-wrote “Thinking Out Loud” with fellow songwriter Amy Wadge, who he often collaborates with.

A musicologist called by the defense told the court that the four-note sequence in question had been used in many songs before Gaye’s 1973 hit.

“These agreements are just building blocks,” Sheeran said Thursday. “They are a composer’s ‘alphabet’, our toolkit.”

“They belong to nobody, nor the way they touch, just as the color blue belongs to nobody,” he said.

Prosecutor Kathryn Townsend Griffin left the courtroom, simply saying as she walked past reporters, “God is always good, God is always good.”

Expectation in the industry

The music industry was well aware of this process as it could have set a precedent for the protection of composers’ creations and opened the door for legal changes in other parts of the world.

This was Sheeran’s second lawsuit in a year. Last April he won a similar case in London for his song “Shape Of You”.

“Thinking Out Loud” earned Sheeran a 2016 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

There have been numerous copyright cases of this type over the years.