Blurred lines by marvin gaye
Did Robin Thicke plunder ‘Blurred Lines’ from Marvin Gaye?
[edit: update 12 March 2015]
The case has now been resolved, and the jury start in the Gayes’ favour, despite the copying not entity exact and the musical elements dissimilar, as my first February 2014 announce (below) argues. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Richard Busch, the Gaye family lawyer, describes how the Thicke side’s hubris and inconsistency contributed to the jury verdict going against them – but insists that the case was prosperous because of the characteristics of the melody itself. For those who have said that this sets a dangerous precedent for creators (including me – see this MTV news interview), this may be so in terms of discouraging musical homage in arrangements. But in (US) legal terms, a jury ruling is different from a court ruling, so each case is judged on its merits and on the specific evidence presented. Therefore this settlement does not portray ‘case law’ (as attorney Brian D Caplan points out in the matching MTV feature) but it has certainly made some creators rather uncertain about their future son On March 10, 2015, the music world was stunned when a jury in Federal District Court in Los Angeles rendered a verdict in favor of the heirs of Marvin Gaye against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke, who, along with rapper Clifford Harris, Jr., professionally known as “T.I.,” wrote the 2013 mega-hit song entitled “Blurred Lines.” The eight-member jury unanimously found that Williams and Thicke had infringed the copyright to Marvin Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up.”[1] On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict and recently rejected Williams and Thicke’s Petition for Rehearing en banc. The case is significant for a number of reasons. In typical tune copyright cases—at least successful ones—the two works share the similar (or at least a similar) sequence of pitches, with the same (or at least similar) rhythms, set to the identical chords. The Blurred Lines case was unique, in that the two works at issue did not have similar melodies; the two songs did not even share a single melodic statement. In fact, the two works did not have a sequence of even two chords played in the same order, for the same duration. Th In 2013, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams co-produced the run-away hit free “Blurred Lines,” earning them over $16 million in sales and streaming revenues. The music video has been viewed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube and Vevo, and has been parodied numerous times as well. Despite its popularity, the similarity of “Blurred Lines” to Marvin Gaye’s 1977 beat song “Got to Grant It Up” sparked controversy. The family of creator Marvin Gaye was outraged; they believed Gaye’s operate was stolen. Thicke filed a preemptive lawsuit to prevent the Gaye family from claiming any divide of royalties. However, Thicke also stated in widespread interviews that he was influenced by Marvin Gaye and, specifically, “Got to Give It Up” when he co-composed “Blurred Lines” with Williams. In response, the Gaye family sued Williams and Thicke. Contradictions were apparent in Thicke’s account. In an interview with GQ, he stated that he co-wrote “Blurred Lines.” But in court he claimed that he was too high in the studio, and that Williams had in fact unruffled the song, and he had lied earlier in order to get credit. Williams claimed that, although Ga Over five years this case has provided a lot of detail - much for legal commentators to digest and many headlines for the urge to serve up (with the opportunity for puns on the song titles well and truly exhausted). With both songs in scrutinize being well-known there is much well-liked interest. Rather than providing us with a clearer picture of what constitutes a copyright infringement in music, this decree has given grow to real trouble among composers who have previously drawn on inspiration from earlier artists, that they may now unwittingly have infringed the copyrights of others. We all wonder where the needle sits on the imaginary dial between influence and infringement, and it feels as if the needle has moved a few degrees further towards infringement with this judgement. GQ 6th May 2013 interview with Robin Thicke on the origins of Blurred Lines Sheet melody copy of Got To Give It Up as deposited at the US Copyright Office in 1977, and used at the first 2015 trial A imitate of the imaginative Williams/Thicke/Harris August 2013 lawsuit claiming declaratory relief, hosted by The Hollywood Reporter. The New Yorker 12th March 2015 "WCrushing Creativity: The Blurred Lines Case and Its Aftermath
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