Why Marv Gaye's Fay Will Probably Lose the 'Blurred L' Case to Rob Thicke

Contents:

• MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE
• BLURRED L: MARV GAYE'S FAY KEEPS $5M PAYOUT
• WHAT'S GOG ON? "BLURRED L" SUCKS AND THE 20 MARV GAYE SONGS ARE BETTER, THAT'S WHAT
• WILL MARV GAYE BE HEARD AT THE ‘BLURRED L’ TRIAL NEXT MONTH?
• PHARRELL WILLIAMS: WE DIDN'T PY MARV GAYE SONG FOR "BLURRED L"
• ‘BLURRED L’ LAWSU: MARV GAYE FAY NOW CLAIMS ROB THICKE STOLE TWO SONGS (EXCLIVE)
• ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS TO PAY $5 LN TO MARV GAYE TATE FOR 'BLURRED L'
• LISTEN TO THE MASH-UP THAT PROV ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG TO MAKE 'BLURRED L'
• MARV GAYE'S FAY WS 'BLURRED L' APPEAL; PHARRELL, ROB THICKE MT PAY
• WHY MARV GAYE'S FAY WILL PROBABLY LOSE THE 'BLURRED L' CASE TO ROB THICKE

MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE

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. 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. ”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. 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.

BLURRED L: MARV GAYE'S FAY KEEPS $5M PAYOUT

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.

WHAT'S GOG ON? "BLURRED L" SUCKS AND THE 20 MARV GAYE SONGS ARE BETTER, THAT'S WHAT

Image source, InterspeImage ptn, Blurred L went to number one the UK while s X-rated vio provoked ntroversyRob Thicke and Pharrell Williams pied one of Marv Gaye's songs to create their 2013 smash Blurred L, an appeal urt has urt upheld a 2015 verdict agast the stars, which means Gaye's fay will get to keep a $5m (£3. Circu Judge Jacquele Nguyen add that the lg "strik a vastatg blow to future micians and posers everywhere" the origal 2015 trial, a jury found that Blurred L had pied Gaye's 1977 h Got To Give It Up - spe many observers claimg the songs were only siar feel, rather than, Williams and rapper TI, who ntributed a verse to the track, lnched an appeal 2016 and were backed by 212 fellow songwrers, among them John Oat, Jason Mraz and members of Lk argued the verdict "threaten[ed] to punish songwrers for creatg new mic that is spired by prr works.

"Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, The h sgle ma more than $5m (£3m) for Williams (left) and ThickeBut the 9th US Circu Court of Appeals largely upheld the cisn, while clearg TI - real name Clifford Harris Jr - of any pyright judg rejected Williams and Thicke's requt to orr a new trial, sayg Gaye's pyright was entled to broad protectn. Wednday's cisn prompted a strong dissent om Circu Judge Jacquele said the cisn let the Gay "acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style" and expand the potential for further pyright ligatn.

WILL MARV GAYE BE HEARD AT THE ‘BLURRED L’ TRIAL NEXT MONTH?

"Image source, RtersImage ptn, Frankie (left) and Nona Gaye said the urt proceedgs uld have been avoidMilogists have reacted wh disappotment to the lg, sayg might hr creativy the Bent, a profsor at Berklee College of Mic, wrote a note-by-note parison of the two songs 2014 and nclud they only shared a groove. The sger’s children Frankie and Nona Gaye rpond wh unterclaims that the micians ged “Got To Give It Up” — and that Thicke and ex-wife Pla Patton pied a send Gaye song, “After The Dance,” -wrg Thicke’s 2011 track “Love After War.”.

In recent motns, Thicke and Williams’ attorneys threw the Gay a pyright curveball wh the argument they don’t own their father’s mercially released rerdgs — they only own the posnal elements the sheet mic “lead sheets.” (The rerdgs belong to Motown Rerds, which is owned by Universal, which turn owns Interspe — the rerd pany that released Blurred L and a fendant the Gay’ untersu.). His cisn enforced that the Marv Gaye rerdgs of “Got To Give It Up” and “After The Dance” uldn’t be heard urt — the attorneys are only g stripped-down stmentals. But more importantly, the cisn means that cidg whether gement occurred, the jury will only nsir whether “Blurred L” and “Love After War” borrow excsively om what’s the Gay’ lead sheets.

The Gay’ attorneys argue that what’s left — the lyrics, the vol melody, the keyboard le and the bass — still remble Thicke’s songs enough to say they’re gement.

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

On Thursday and Friday, the Gaye fay’s attorney Richard Bch lled a pair of milogists to the stand, and the urtroom beme a urse on mic theory wh their ttimoni on what they hear mon between the posns.

‘BLURRED L’ LAWSU: MARV GAYE FAY NOW CLAIMS ROB THICKE STOLE TWO SONGS (EXCLIVE)

“Signature phrase”: Judh Fell, the Berkeley-ted head of a milogy nsultg firm, labeled one phrase per song the immediately intifiable “signature phrase”: the openg lyrics “I ed to go out to parti” Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up” and the chos opener “And that’s why I’m gon’ take a good girl” “Blurred L.” She found the siari their melodi “pretty stunng” and “highly unual,” she ttified. The Gay’ other mil expert, Harvard profsor of Ain-Amerin mic Ingrid Monson, argued that Gaye’s bass le and s pairg wh a reggae- or ragtime-fluenced keyboard melody were highly unual Motown mic. The rap verse “Blurred L” begs and ends at the same pot the song as the Gaye song’s “parlando” — a lyril chantg Fell scribed as “a precursor to rap.” The jury looked amed while Bch and Fell pared lyrics om the parlando and the rap verse, cludg pairg Gaye’s “Let me step to/ to your erotic zone” wh a le of T.I.’s that Bch refed to read aloud — “I’ll give you somethg big enough to tear your ass two” — before he remarked to the dience, “Well, I lost that bet.”.

ROB THICKE, PHARRELL WILLIAMS TO PAY $5 LN TO MARV GAYE TATE FOR 'BLURRED L'

Miller rpond that Thicke’s vols don’t match the Gaye sheet mic, but Fell said the discrepancy is bee Thicke’s theme X match a harmony not wrten but implied the lead sheet. GPhoto: Rob Verhorst/RedfernsYterday, a jury led that Pharrell and Rob Thicke ged on the pyright of Marv Gaye’s extremely excellent 1977 song, "Got to Give Up" while makg their potentially ls good (jt sayg!

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. 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.

Next month, many ears will be attuned to a feral urtroom California where the fay of Marv Gaye will do battle agast Pharrell Williams and Rob Thicke over the ntroversial creatn of…. Next month, many ears will be attuned to a feral urtroom California where the fay of Marv Gaye will do battle agast Pharrell Williams and Rob Thicke over the ntroversial creatn of the mega-h song, “Blurred L. 10 trial that will surely be an historic one for the mic dtry, both sis have submted memos that outle their key arguments and evince over whether “Blurred L” is or isn’t a pyright gement of Gaye’s 1977 chart-topper “Got to Give It Up.

LISTEN TO THE MASH-UP THAT PROV ROB THICKE AND PHARRELL PIED A MARV GAYE SONG TO MAKE 'BLURRED L'

Naturally, attemptg to prove substantial siary, attorneys for the Gaye fay want the jury to hear the two songs (along wh Gaye’s “After the Dance” and Thicke’s “Love After War”).

District Judge John Kronstadt rejected summary judgment the lawsu, he led that the Gaye fay hadn’t sufficiently shown that the “Got to Give It Up” pyright enpassed “material other than that reflected the lead sheets posed wh the Copyright Office.

MARV GAYE'S FAY WS 'BLURRED L' APPEAL; PHARRELL, ROB THICKE MT PAY

The lawsu is now about whether Gaye’s posn was ged, and if the jury isn’t sophistited enough to read sheet mic, Howard Kg and Seth Miller, attorneys for Williams and Thicke, have a proposal. Acrdg to the Gay, “This is not relevant, no probative value, prejudicial, distractg to the jury, and they [EMI] have a nflict of tert bee “Blurred L, ” which they own, is their ‘goln goose’ and Williams is one of their wrers.

WHY MARV GAYE'S FAY WILL PROBABLY LOSE THE 'BLURRED L' CASE TO ROB THICKE

” His attorney wants much of this preclud as irrelevant and prejudicial and stat that Thicke’s ments to the prs about beg spired by Gaye don’t mean much sce they stipulate to the fact that the sger had accs to the song. The Gaye fay will likely seek as much as they n get — profs and statutory damag — while Williams and Thicke hope to lim potential damag to the value of the license fee they would have paid for the Gaye songs. 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.

LOS ANGELES -- Pharrell Williams told a jury Wednday that he was tryg to evoke the feel of Marv Gaye's mic but did not py the late sger's work when he crafted the 2013 h "Blurred L. "Williams said he grew up listeng to Gaye's mic and was faiar wh his song "Got to Give It Up, " but did not e as a basis for "Blurred L, " which was a h for him and llaborators Rob Thicke and T. Are beg sued by Gaye's children who claim "Blurred L" g their father's pyrights for 1977's "Got to Give It Up, " but Williams' ttimony is ccial bee he wrote the song's mic and most of s lyrics.

Jurors have heard "Blurred L" and lawyers for Gaye's fay wanted the panel to hear "Got to Give It Up, " but Kronstadt has limed how the song n be prented urt. UPDATE: A lawyer for the tate of Marv Gaye tells Rollg Stone that he will try to block all future sal of “Blurred L” until an agreement is reached. The cisn, which hged on the fact that Gaye’s fay owned only elements of the sheet mic to “Got to Give It Up, ” me om eight jurors who listened to ttimony om milogists, as well as Thicke and Williams.

Rpond to threats of legal actn by the Gaye tate and publisher Bridgeport Mic by preemptively sug them, along wh Funkalic, claimg “Blurred L” was “strikgly different” than “Got to Give It Up” and the latter group’s “Sexy Ways.