A jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children nearly $7.4 million on Tuesday after determining singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied their father’s music to create the song “Blurred Lines,” the biggest hit song of 2013.
Marvin Gaye’s daughter Nona Gaye broke down in tears as the verdict was read.
“Right now, I feel free,” she said outside court. “Free from ... Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.”
The verdict could sing doom to the legacy of Mr. Williams, a reliable hit-maker who has won Grammy Awards and appears on NBC’s music competition show “The Voice.”
He and Mr. Thicke are “undoubtedly disappointed,” said their lead attorney, Howard King.
“They’re unwavering in their absolute conviction that they wrote this song independently,” he said.
Mr. King has said a decision in favor of Gaye’s heirs could have a chilling effect on musicians who try to emulate an era or another artist’s sound.
“Unfortunately, today’s jury verdict has blurred the lines between protectable elements of a musical composition and the unprotectable musical style or groove exemplified by Marvin Gaye,” Mr. Iser, an intellectual property attorney who has represented numerous musicians in copyright cases said. “Although Gaye was the Prince of Soul, he didn’t own a copyright to the genre, and Thicke and Williams’ homage to the feel of Marvin Gaye is not infringing.”
The two singers Pharrell and thinke was sued in 2013 by Gaye’s children—Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III.
The family “fought this fight despite every odd being against them,” Mr. Busch the lawyer of gaye's heir said after the verdict was read.
Mr. Thicke told jurors he didn’t write “Blurred Lines,” which Mr. Williams testified he crafted in about an hour in mid-2012.
Mr. Williams testified that Marvin Gaye’s music was part of the soundtrack of his youth. But the seven-time Grammy winner said he didn’t use any of it to create “Blurred Lines.”
“Blurred Lines” has sold more than 7.3 million copies in the U.S. alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures. It earned a Grammy Awards nomination and netted Mr. Williams and Mr. Thicke millions of dollars.
During closing arguments, Mr. Busch accused Mr. Thicke and Mr. Williams of lying about how the song was created. He told jurors they could award Gaye’s children millions of dollars if they determined the copyright of “Got to Give It Up” was infringed.
Mr. King denied there were any substantial similarities between “Blurred Lines” and the sheet music Gaye submitted to obtain copyright protection.
Mr. Williams has become a household name—known simply as Pharrell—thanks to his hit song “Happy” and his work as a judge on the “The Voice.” He wrote the majority of “Blurred Lines” and recorded it in one night with Mr. Thicke. A segment by rapper T.I. was added later.
Mr. Williams, 41, also signed a document stating he didn’t use any other artists’ work in the music and would be responsible if a successful copyright claim was raised.
Mr. Thicke testified he wasn’t present when the song was written, despite receiving credit.
The trial focused on detailed analyses of chords and notes in both “Blurred Lines” and “Got to Give It Up.”
Jurors repeatedly heard the upbeat song “Blurred Lines” and saw snippets of its music video, but Gaye’s music was represented during the trial in a less polished form. Jurors did not hear “Got to Give It Up” as Gaye recorded it, but rather a version created based solely on sheet music submitted to gain copyright protection.
That version lacked many of the elements—including Gaye’s voice—that helped make the song a hit in 1977. Mr. Busch called the version used in court a “Frankenstein-like monster” that didn’t accurately represent Gaye’s work.
An expert for the Gaye family said there were eight distinct elements from “Got to Give It Up” that were used in “Blurred Lines,” but an expert for Mr. Williams and Mr. Thicke denied those similarities existed.
Gaye died in April 1984, leaving his children the copyrights to his music.
Source:
WSJ
