Robin Thicke Appeals ‘Blurred Lines’ Decision
Maybe Robin Thicke and Pharrell are going deaf, maybe they're going blind, but either way, they aren't going to take that "Blurred Lines" court decision lying down: On Monday they filed a motion to appeal a jury's decision in March that their 2013 hit improperly borrowed the "groove" from Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up." The original verdict ordered the duo to pay $7.4 million — since reduced to $5.3 million, with $3.2 million of that having already been paid (Thicke owes an additional $1.8 million and Williams an additional $360,000) — in damages to Gaye's family, who also asked that Thicke and Pharrell stop selling the song until they paid up. The family's attorney, Paul Phillips, told the Wraphe was confident the controversial ruling would be upheld: "This appeal only delays the inevitable — we aren’t going anywhere." Hey hey hey.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...seeks-to-halt-sales-of-blurred-lines-20150311
On Tuesday evening, the Gaye family officially filed an injunction attempting to block the distribution and sale of "Blurred Lines."
Now that Marvin Gaye's family has won a copyright suit regarding the similarity of Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I.'s "Blurred Lines" and the soul icon's "Got to Give It Up," their lawyer wants to stop the sales of that song.
"We'll be asking the court to enter an injunction prohibiting the further sale and distribution of 'Blurred Lines' unless and until we can reach an agreement with those guys on the other side about how future monies that are received will be shared," attorney Richard Busch, who represents the Gaye family, tells Rolling Stone. "We'll be doing that in about a week or so."
A representative for Thicke, Williams and T.I. was not immediately available for comment.
A Los Angeles jury decided Tuesday that the "Blurred Lines" songwriters infringed on Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" and ordered them to pay Gaye's family $7.3 million in damages. The lawsuit started when the "Blurred Lines" songwriters filed a preemptive suit in August 2013 claiming that the hit single was "strikingly different" than "Got to Give It Up," fearing the Gayes would be litigious.
Asked for his and his clients' reactions to the verdict, the lawyer says all were "thrilled, happy and satisfied." "Mr. Williams and his legal team portrayed this as the copying of a genre or a groove or a feel," Busch says. "That was not the case, as the jury found. It was the copy of a musical composition – melody and harmony and bass line and keyboard and other things."
The Gayes had a difficult fight in this suit, Busch says, because the judge would not allow them to play "Got to Give It Up" for the jury. Since songwriters could file only sheet music for copyrights prior to 1978, the jury could not hear major recorded elements of the song like its percussion, cowbell and, as Busch puts it, "party noises." He says his side won the jury over by playing the jury only the protected parts of the song.
"I'm really grateful," Janis Gaye, Marvin's former wife and the mother of Nona and Frankie Gaye, told The New York Times following the decision. "I hope people understand that this means Marvin deserves credit for what he did back in 1977."
Ultimately, Busch does not want the lawsuit to reflect poorly on the Gayes. "I just want to let the readers know that we didn't start this fight," Busch tells Rolling Stone. "They sued us, taking a declaration of non-infringement. They started this war and we just finished it."
Maybe Robin Thicke and Pharrell are going deaf, maybe they're going blind, but either way, they aren't going to take that "Blurred Lines" court decision lying down: On Monday they filed a motion to appeal a jury's decision in March that their 2013 hit improperly borrowed the "groove" from Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up." The original verdict ordered the duo to pay $7.4 million — since reduced to $5.3 million, with $3.2 million of that having already been paid (Thicke owes an additional $1.8 million and Williams an additional $360,000) — in damages to Gaye's family, who also asked that Thicke and Pharrell stop selling the song until they paid up. The family's attorney, Paul Phillips, told the Wraphe was confident the controversial ruling would be upheld: "This appeal only delays the inevitable — we aren’t going anywhere." Hey hey hey.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...seeks-to-halt-sales-of-blurred-lines-20150311
On Tuesday evening, the Gaye family officially filed an injunction attempting to block the distribution and sale of "Blurred Lines."
Now that Marvin Gaye's family has won a copyright suit regarding the similarity of Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I.'s "Blurred Lines" and the soul icon's "Got to Give It Up," their lawyer wants to stop the sales of that song.
"We'll be asking the court to enter an injunction prohibiting the further sale and distribution of 'Blurred Lines' unless and until we can reach an agreement with those guys on the other side about how future monies that are received will be shared," attorney Richard Busch, who represents the Gaye family, tells Rolling Stone. "We'll be doing that in about a week or so."
A representative for Thicke, Williams and T.I. was not immediately available for comment.
A Los Angeles jury decided Tuesday that the "Blurred Lines" songwriters infringed on Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up" and ordered them to pay Gaye's family $7.3 million in damages. The lawsuit started when the "Blurred Lines" songwriters filed a preemptive suit in August 2013 claiming that the hit single was "strikingly different" than "Got to Give It Up," fearing the Gayes would be litigious.
Asked for his and his clients' reactions to the verdict, the lawyer says all were "thrilled, happy and satisfied." "Mr. Williams and his legal team portrayed this as the copying of a genre or a groove or a feel," Busch says. "That was not the case, as the jury found. It was the copy of a musical composition – melody and harmony and bass line and keyboard and other things."
The Gayes had a difficult fight in this suit, Busch says, because the judge would not allow them to play "Got to Give It Up" for the jury. Since songwriters could file only sheet music for copyrights prior to 1978, the jury could not hear major recorded elements of the song like its percussion, cowbell and, as Busch puts it, "party noises." He says his side won the jury over by playing the jury only the protected parts of the song.
"I'm really grateful," Janis Gaye, Marvin's former wife and the mother of Nona and Frankie Gaye, told The New York Times following the decision. "I hope people understand that this means Marvin deserves credit for what he did back in 1977."
Ultimately, Busch does not want the lawsuit to reflect poorly on the Gayes. "I just want to let the readers know that we didn't start this fight," Busch tells Rolling Stone. "They sued us, taking a declaration of non-infringement. They started this war and we just finished it."
and its back again, this and that pistorious case just wont go away for shit! 
An artist knows when they bit. And people get sued all the time in the music industry. They should've taken care of business beforehand.
Do that and pay for the "homage" too.
