In a landmark decision for the music industry, a jury in Los Angeles ordered “Blurred Lines” songwriters Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams to pay $7.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye for copyright infringement on Tuesday.
Gaye’s family had argued that the 2013 smash hit “Blurred Lines” copied their father’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up” and sued Thicke, Williams and Clifford Harris Jr., aka T.I., whom all contested the infringement.
Overall, the Gaye family sought more than $25 million in damages.
“Right now, I feel free,” Marvin Gaye’s daughter, Nona Gaye, said after the verdict. “Free from … Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.”
The attorney for the Gaye family, Richard Busch, will also seek to halt sales of “Blurred Lines,” and said he will file official paperwork by next week.
Nominated for record of the year at the 2013 Grammys, “Blurred Lines” was no. 1 on the Billboard single charts for 10 consecutive weeks. Since it was released, “Blurred Lines” has earned nearly $16.5 million in profits according to court documents, with Williams and Thicke raking in over $5 million each.
Gaye died in 1984.
Both Thicke and Williams appeared in court during the past week to defend their case, with much of the trial featuring comparisons between the songs. Listening to the juxtaposed bass lines of the two songs in question, Williams even admitted the similarities, saying, “It sounds like you’re playing the same thing.”
Still, while testifying last week, Williams said the two songs share “feel — not infringement.”
The proceedings were perhaps most notable for the presence of Thicke, who sang and played the piano as he defended the work as original and said he was intoxicated when he gave media interviews in which he talked about Gaye’s influence on the works. He also said that he was mistaken when he claimed credit for writing part of the song.