Pharrell Williams: We didn't py Marv Gaye song for "Blurred L" - CBS News

Contents:

• ‘BLURRED L’ INGED ON MARV GAYE COPYRIGHT, JURY RUL
• MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE
• RULG THAT ‘BLURRED L’ PIED MARV GAYE SONG ROCKS MIC WORLD
• 'BLURRED L' NTROVERSY RURFAC AS MARV GAYE'S FAY CLAIMS PHARRELL MTED PERJURY
• BLURRED L JURY AWARDS MARV GAYE FAY $7M
• ​JURY: PHARRELL, ROB THICKE PIED MARV GAYE FOR "BLURRED L"
• ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS PIED OM MARV GAYE BLURRED L, URT NFIRMS
• ROB THICKE SU TO STOP CLAIMS THAT "BLURRED L" COPI MARV GAYE; LATE SGER'S SON SAYS GAYE DERV CRED
• JURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED LJURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED L
• PHARRELL WILLIAMS: WE DIDN'T PY MARV GAYE SONG FOR "BLURRED L"

‘BLURRED L’ INGED ON MARV GAYE COPYRIGHT, JURY RUL

Marv Gaye fay's pyright gement lawsu agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams ends $5 ln judgment. A judge has entered a nearly $5 ln judgment agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams favor of Marv Gaye’s fay the long-nng lawsu volvg pyright gement surroundg Thicke and Williams’ song “Blurred L” and Gaye’s 1977 h “Got to Give It Up, ” Billboard reports. Addnally, The Gaye fay is entled to receive prejudgment tert on the damag award and rpective profs agast each of them, which totals to $9097.

MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE

The Gaye fay is also entled to royalti gog forward for 50 percent of the songwrer and publishg revenue g om “Blurred L. AdvertisementSKIP McCarten/RtersMarch 10, 2015For the last year and a half, the mic dtry has been gripped by a lawsu over whether Rob Thicke’s 2013 h “Blurred L” was merely remiscent of a song by Marv Gaye, or had crossed the le to plagiarism. A feral jury Los Angel on Tuday agreed that “Blurred L” had gone too far, and pied elements of Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up” whout permissn.

Gaye’s and Frankie Gaye, two of Marv Gaye’s children, are to receive $4 ln damag pl about $3.

Williams sued first, seekg a claratn om a judge to protect them agast gement claims that they said had been ma privately by the Gaye fay. Nona and Frankie Gaye quickly the verdict was read on Tuday, members of the Gaye fay — who were prent at urt throughout the trial — exulted and shed tears of joy. “I’m really grateful, ” said Janis Gaye, Marv’s former wife and the mother of Nona and Frankie Gaye.

RULG THAT ‘BLURRED L’ PIED MARV GAYE SONG ROCKS MIC WORLD

”A rrectn was ma onMarch 13, 2015: An article on Wednday about the pyright gement trial volvg the song “Blurred L” referred imprecisely to the damag award to the fay of Marv Gaye. 3 ln judgment agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams for pyg a Marv Gaye song to create their 2013 smash “Blurred L. Circu Court of Appeals said Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up” served “broad” pyright protectn, and the March 2015 jury verdict favor of Gaye’s three children uld stand bee there was “not an absolute absence of evince” of siary between the two songs.

Circu Judge Milan Smh also upheld an award of 50 percent of future royalti om “Blurred L” to the Gay. And Interspe should be liable, but the appeals urt “Blurred L” se has transfixed the mic dtry, promptg bate over the le between plagiarism and honorg works by popular artists like Gaye, whose songs also clu “I Heard It Through the Grapeve” and “What’s Gog On. Wednday’s cisn prompted a strong dissent om Circu Judge Jacquele Nguyen, who said the cisn let the Gay “acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style, ” and expand the potential for further pyright ligatn.

'BLURRED L' NTROVERSY RURFAC AS MARV GAYE'S FAY CLAIMS PHARRELL MTED PERJURY

”Two of Gaye’s children, Frankie and Nona, lled the cisn “a victory for the rights of all micians.

”Williams, whose songs also clu “Happy, ” admted urt to beg a Gaye fan sce childhood but said “Blurred L” and “Got to Give Up” were siar genre has terviews acknowledged drawg on Gaye’s song but mataed sworn statements that he exaggerated his ntributn to “Blurred L. Marv Gaye’s Estate won a lawsu agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams for the h song “Blurred L, ” which had a siar feel to one of his songs.

Dpe s populary, the siary of “Blurred L” to Marv Gaye’s 1977 h song “Got to Give It Up” sparked ntroversy. The fay of artist Marv Gaye was outraged; they believed Gaye’s work was stolen.

BLURRED L JURY AWARDS MARV GAYE FAY $7M

Thicke filed a preemptive lawsu to prevent the Gaye fay om claimg any share of royalti.

However, Thicke also stated public terviews that he was fluenced by Marv Gaye and, specifilly, “Got to Give It Up” when he -posed “Blurred L” wh Williams.

Williams claimed that, although Gaye’s mic had fluenced him his youth, he did not py Gaye’s song his posn. In March 2015, the jury led favor of the Gaye tate, statg that while Williams and Thicke did not directly py “Got to Give It Up, ” there was enough of a siar “feel” to warrant pyright gement.

​JURY: PHARRELL, ROB THICKE PIED MARV GAYE FOR "BLURRED L"

Thicke and Williams did not see the mil fluence of Gaye as pyright gement, but rather as spiratn that spurred them to create a new, origal sgle. Do you thk the Gaye fay should own the rights to the “feel” of “Got to Give It Up” addn to specific lyrics, melodi, harmony, etc.? The product, “Blurred L, ” went on to bee the biggt song of 2013 and brg lns of dollars each for Williams, sger Rob Thicke and the rerd obscure procs — “magic, ” Williams’ attorney lled — and what, if any, part the late soul sger and songwrer Marv Gaye played were the subject of a two-week-long trial a downtown feral urtroom which attorneys, mic experts, valuatn experts and micians argued over the age-old qutn of where spiratn ends and theft Tuday, a feral jury cid that “Blurred L” had pied Gaye’s 1977 chart-topper “Got To Give It Up, ” and found that Williams and Thicke should fork over nearly $7.

Gaye’s dghter, Nona, clung to her attorney and sobbed when the verdict was oute uld reverberate throughout the mic dtry, given how prevalent is the bs to draw spiratn, and sometim more, om earlier Sam Smh agreed earlier this year to share royalti om his song “Stay Wh Me” after parisons to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down, ” the olr mician wrote on his webse that was a “mil accint, ” and sound a sympathetic note: “All my years of songwrg have shown me the thgs n happen. “This may put a se on the Gaye fay’s face, but ’s a dark day for creativy, and the end, this will be a loss for mic fans, ” he said.

”The Gay’ attorney, Richard Bch, said after the verdict that the trial was not about spiratn or the mic bs, but the pyg of one song. ” On a send Thicke song that was also at issue, they found that “Love After War” did not ge on Gaye’s “After the Dance.

ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS PIED OM MARV GAYE BLURRED L, URT NFIRMS

”The eight-person jury, most of whom appeared to be more of Gaye’s generatn than Thicke and Williams’ mographic, heard “Blurred L” several tim durg the trial and twice watched the rnchy mic vio — but never got to hear the full rerdg of “Got to Give It Up.

” Bee laws when Gaye wrote the song allowed only the sheet mic posn, not the sound rerdg, to be pyrighted, jurors heard short snippets and a stripped-down versn created by Thicke and Williams’ milogist wh jt Gaye’s vols over a bass le and chords on a said there were pied elements — cludg the bass and keyboard le, the hook and a repeated theme — all but two bars of “Blurred L. ” Thicke and Williams disavowed statements they ma over and over aga prs terviews about how they talked about or channeled Gaye as they wrote the oath on the wns stand, Thicke said he had been dnk and high the day the song was wrten and durg his prs terviews, and had sought to unservedly take cred even though he had wrten none of said he had misremembered the events of the night and only realized his error when he heard Williams’ rellectn at a posn. He lied to Oprah Wey, Thicke said, when he told her half his mic was spired by Gaye.

Williams ttified that he ma the nnectn to Gaye only hdsight, and that though he was raised listeng to Gaye and rpected the mician “beyond words, ” he did not take om his mic. ”Nona Gaye, one of three Gaye children who prevailed the se, said the fay had taken on mic dtry giants for her father, who died 1984.

ROB THICKE SU TO STOP CLAIMS THAT "BLURRED L" COPI MARV GAYE; LATE SGER'S SON SAYS GAYE DERV CRED

Composer, arranger, and thor Richard Nil, PhD., talks about the signifince of the pyright claim agast Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams song “Blurred L” and victor lawsu om the Marv Gaye tate. But when the Marv Gaye tate was victor s claim that the Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams song “Blurred L” had ged the pyright of Marv Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up, ” sent rippl through the mic dtry. Still, while ncedg that “Blurred L” did not py any of Gaye’s melodi or lyrics, the urt neverthels led that the siary of the “feel” of the rhythm sectn was sufficient grounds for a cisn of pyright gement.

” After the Gaye cisn, the orchtrator might expect cred and royalti as a -poser. The tchy brass troductn to “Dancg the Street” was not wrten by the song’s creded songwrers, Marv Gaye, Mickey Stevenson, and Ivy Joe Hunter. But no one has mentned that the rhythm arrangement on “Got to Give It Up” was not wrten by Marv Gaye alone, though he owned the rights to acrdg to pyright law as terpreted at the time.

On March 10, 2015, a feral jury found that Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams ged a pyright owned by the heirs of Marv Gaye, by pyg substantially om Gaye’s song “Got to Give It Up” when they created their 2013 h “Blurred L.

JURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED LJURY FDS ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG FOR BLURRED L

”[1] While other recent pyright disput volvg major rerdg artists have settled whout eher party ever filg su, the battle between the “Blurred L” wrers and Gaye’s heirs was particularly ntent, all the way up to the uncerta endg.

[5] However, the tr’s songwrg skills were lled to qutn when the heirs of 1970’s Motown legend Marv Gaye asserted that the song ged on the pyright of Gaye’s own number-one h “Got to Give It Up.

PHARRELL WILLIAMS: WE DIDN'T PY MARV GAYE SONG FOR "BLURRED L"

”[6] Anticipatg an gement su, Thicke and his -wrers filed for a claratory judgment of non-gement the Uned Stat District Court for the Central District of California; Gaye’s heirs subsequently filed a unterclaim for gement. ’”[9] In the “Blurred L” dispute, was unntted that the song’s wrers had accs to Gaye’s song. [11] Moreover, the wrers did not dispute that Gaye’s heirs own a valid pyright the song.

[12] The major dispute this se, however, was the extent of that pyright’s spe, which signifintly affected Gaye’s heirs’ abily to prove substantial siary. Kronstadt led October that Gaye’s heirs’ pyright extends only to the wrten sheet mic for the song that was posed at the Copyright Office 1977. Gay’ heirs tried to argue that the posed sheet mic only served to intify the work, not fe , and that pyright protectn unr the 1909 Act clud the sound rerdg bee the sheet mic reasonably intified the rerdg.

Although Gaye’s heirs still had a se agast Thicke and his -wrers, the cisn to lim the spe of their pyright to the sheet mic was a major blow that seemed to greatly rce their chanc of a succsful oute. ”[29] The heirs were therefore also rrect their argument that the posed sheet mic of “Got to Give It Up” simply served to intify the work that Marv Gaye sought to register (the song as was rerd), not to fe the spe of protectn.

”[31] Judge Kronstadt’s strict readg of the statute disregard the fact that Marv Gaye’s sheet pos fulfills the purpos, and that is all that should be required to do unr the 1909 Act. 26, 2015, 8:35 PM), [3] Daniel Siegal, Gay’ Expert Fac Absent Not At “Blurred L” Trial, Law 360 (Feb. [20] Compare RobThickeVevo, supra note 4, wh The BLUES, “Marv Gaye – Got to give up, ” YouTube (Jun.