BY CHEMELLE RICE
The music industry has been hit with a landmark decision this year. Nearly a whole two years after the jams release, a rather stern jury in Los Angeles has ordered “Blurred Lines” singer/songwriters Robin Thicke and producer Pharrell Williams to pay a mega fine of £7.3 million to the family of the late “Sexual Healing” singer Marvin Gaye for copyright infringement last Tuesday. Marvin Gaye’s family have been arguing this battle and not backing down since the 2013 smash hit “Blurred Lines” took to our screens by copying their father’s work. The number one sampled the 1977 song “Got to Give It Up”, the family sued two timer Thicke, Virginian born Williams and Clifford Harris Jr., aka T.I., all of whom all denied the copyright infringement. This type of crime doesn’t go unnoticed or unpunished in the industry. All three stars who released the raunchy video have impeccably flawless reputations when it comes to their musical careers . Plagiarizing the late soul mogul’s hits without consent was an offence, period! To sample a song is allowed, but permission must be granted in order for all costs and shares to be discussed, before any form of hit is released, for the avoidance of any complications. Had the defendants done the proper thing, they would not be in the mess they find themselves now.
The Gaye family sought more than £25 million in damages.
“Right now, I feel free,” Marvin Gaye’s daughter, Nona Gaye, said after the verdict. “Free from … Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.” Richard Busch, The attorney for the Gaye family, will also seek to halt sales of “Blurred Lines,” and said he will file official paperwork by next week.
Nominated for record of the year at the 2013 Grammys, “Blurred Lines” was off course no. 1 on the Billboard single charts for not 4 or 5 weeks but a major 10 consecutive weeks. Since it was released, “Blurred Lines” has earned somewhere in the regions of £16.5 million in profits according to the court case’s files and documents. Leaving Williams and publicly dumped Thicke raking in over an astonishing £5 million each.
Gaye died in 31 years ago in 1984, after his own father shot him dead a day before his 45th birthday. Gaye senior blasted his son twice whilst he sat on his bed talking with his mother. The gun he was killed with was uncannily a gift from him to his father the previous Christmas to promote his father’s safety in the family nest from intruders.
Both Thicke and Williams appeared in court during the past week to defend their case, with much of the trial featuring comparisons between the songs. Listening to the juxtaposed base lines of the two songs in question, Pharrell even shockingly admitted how the similarities were noticeable, saying, “It sounds like you’re playing the same thing.” Whilst testifying in court last week, 41 year old, Williams stated the two songs share “feel — not infringement.”
The proceedings were more notable with the presence of co-worker and Californian Thicke, who sang whilst playing the hit on the piano. He repeatedly defended the work highlighting its originality and claimed he was overly intoxicated when he gave media interviews in which he talked about Gaye’s influences on his current work. He also backtracked when stating that he was mistaken when he claimed credit for also writing part of the hit song. The eight-person jury closed its full day of closed-door deliberations last Friday after hearing a week of testimony, with court resuming on Tuesday.
