The family of the late Marvin Gaye are today millions of dollars better off after a court ruled they were ripped off by Robin Thicke.
It may not have been a wilful and planned copyright infringement, but a jury has found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell did copy major elements of the Marvin Gaye song Got To Give It Up for their song Blurred Lines and have ordered the pair to pay $7.4 million in damages.
The five man, three woman jury ordered the two artists to pay $4 million in copyright damages plus profits that were split $1.8 million for Thicke and $1.6 million for Pharrell.
The attorney for Thicke and Pharrell tried to convince the jury that, even though Frankie and Nona Gaye owned the copyright on the music for Got to Give It Up, as written in the official sheet music for the song, it did not extend to the arrangement, including instrumentation and rhythm, nor to the singing. The Thicke/Pharrell side also had the advantage of a previous ruling that the sound recording of the songs could not be played as the discussion was over the written music (a stripped down version was allowed to be played).
The lawyer for the Gayes used music experts to address different elements of the music and how they are similar between the two songs.
Thicke himself did their team no favors by admitting that he had lied in media interviews and was high on Vicodin.
In the end, jurors agreed with the Gaye family on both Blurred Lines and another song by Thicke from the same album, Love After War, as an infringement of Gaye’s After the Dance. The latter decision was only awarded $9,375 in damages.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Never miss a story! Get your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to the Noise11 Music Newsletter here
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
Follow Noise11.com on Facebook and Twitter
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Never miss a story! Get your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to the Noise11 Music Newsletter here
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
Follow Noise11.com on Facebook and Twitter
more from vvnmusic.com
