Gaye vs. Thicke: Blurred l of pyright gement? | OUP

Contents:

• HOW SIAR IS ‘BLURRED L’ TO A 1977 MARV GAYE H?
• MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE
• GAYE VS. THICKE: HOW BLURRED ARE THE L OF PYRIGHT GEMENT?
• ‘BLURRED L’ INGED ON MARV GAYE COPYRIGHT, JURY RUL
• MARV GAYE'S FAY WS 'BLURRED L' APPEAL; PHARRELL, ROB THICKE MT PAY
• WILLIAMS V. GAYE: “BLURRED L” APPEAL HEARG CENTERS ON ADMISSIBILY OF EVINCE ABOUT ORIGAL SOUND RERDG
• 'BLURRED L' NTROVERSY RURFAC AS MARV GAYE'S FAY CLAIMS PHARRELL MTED PERJURY
• RULG THAT ‘BLURRED L’ PIED MARV GAYE SONG ROCKS MIC WORLD

HOW SIAR IS ‘BLURRED L’ TO A 1977 MARV GAYE H?

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTEd Sheeran is on trial, acced of borrowg om Marv Gaye.

MARV GAYE FAY PREVAILS 'BLURRED L' PLAGIARISM SE

ImageThe fay of the soul star Marv Gaye (left) sued Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams (right) over their song “Blurred L. He is acced of pyg passag om Marv Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” (1973); the fay of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s -wrer, filed the su 2017.

Bridgeport Mic (2018)‘Blurred L’“Got to Give It Up”Marv GayeBlurred LRob Thicke featurg T. ”Rob Thicke and Pharrell Williams were sued 2013 over their song “Blurred L” by members of Gaye’s fay, who argued that pied his dis-era h “Got to Give It Up.

The Gay’ expert poted to a “nstellatn” of var mil elements, which stck many mentators as vague but was enough to persua the jury. The verdict was upheld on appeal, but a dissentg judge said allowed the Gaye tate “to acplish what no one has before: pyright a mil style. Sheeran (2023)‘Thkg Out Loud’“Let’s Get It On”Marv Gaye“Thkg Out Loud”Ed SheeranIn a long-nng se that was layed part by the ronavis panmic, heirs of Townsend, Gaye’s -wrer of “Let’s Get It On, ” acce Sheeran of pyg the “heart” of that song for his h “Thkg Out Loud.

GAYE VS. THICKE: HOW BLURRED ARE THE L OF PYRIGHT GEMENT?

Will return to Los Angel feral urt on Tuday to fight claims they pied their multiplatum song om Gaye’s 1977 h “Got To Give It Up. 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. ) as well as experts on mic licensg and revenue, who will speak to the damag the Gay uld claim if they w.

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. Judge John Kronstadt agreed a lg January and reaffirmed the lg followg an appeal om the Gay.

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.

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

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. “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. 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.

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

That means ’s hard for Thicke and Williams to claim they were fluenced by the genre general, she said, stead of the Gaye songs specifilly. Le by le, the experts pared lyrics cludg Gaye’s “move up / Turn ’round / Shake down” and Thicke’s “Shake around / Get down / Get up. 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.

WILLIAMS V. GAYE: “BLURRED L” APPEAL HEARG CENTERS ON ADMISSIBILY OF EVINCE ABOUT ORIGAL SOUND RERDG

” 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. “Theme X”: Fell intified a short, recurrg melodic le she labeled “theme X, ” heard Gaye’s sung lyrics “dancg lady” unr the ma vol.

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. 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. 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.

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

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. Sce then, however, “Blurred L” and Thicke’s overwhelmg succs have been eclipsed by the recent feral urt se, which a jury cid that s creators ged upon the pyright of Marv Gaye’s 1977 Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, “Got to Give It Up. ” In an unprecented verdict and after two years of ligatn var urts, the Gaye tate was award $7.

After the Marv Gaye tate formally requted some sort of repense om Thicke, Williams, Harris, and the distributors of “Blurred L” for s sonic siary and “feel” to Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up” 2013, the tr lnched a “Complat for Declamatory Relief” agast the Gaye tate. In realy, the Gaye fendants are claimg ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work. The legal loophole found pyright law by the Thicke/Williams mp was that Gaye’s mercial sound rerdg of “Got to Give It Up”—which ntas many of the sonic and performative elements that suggt the “groove” and “feel” of the song, cludg Gaye’s voice—was not admissible urt evince.