Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke Aren't Through With Their 'Blurred Lines' Legal Bout
The “Blurred Lines” lawsuit involving Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke rocked the music industry and changed how sampling and royalties could be processed moving forward.
Apparently though, the whole thing isn’t over yet as the duo, along with T.I., are appealing the March 2015 decision. If you remember, they were ordered to pay over $5 million, plus 50 percent of the song’s royalties post-trial to the Marvin Gaye family. Their previous request for a retrial was dismissed.
The Guardian is reporting that lawyers representing the three artists filed an opening brief in an attempt to overturn the guilty verdict. “If left to stand, the Blurred Lines verdict would chill musical creativity and inhibit the process by which later artists draw inspiration from earlier artists to create new popular music,” the brief stated.
“What happened instead was a cascade of legal errors warranting this court’s reversal or vacatur for new trial,” it continues. “At summary judgment, the district court entertained expert testimony by musicologists for the Gayes who based their opinions entirely on the sound recording, not the deposit copy. The court correctly filtered out non-deposit copy and generic musical features from their testimony, but then erroneously failed to compare what remained to Blurred Lines.”
It’s uncertain whether a retrial will actually happen. Guess we’ll have to wait to see what’s next. Read The Guardian’s full report here.