COPYRIGHT BATTLE: Pharrell and Robin Thicke ordered to pay $7.4m to Marvin Gaye's children for copying Blurred Lines from the soul Legend's Music

Robin Thicke

 

 

Pharrell Williams

A jury awarded Marvin Gaye's children $7.4million on Tuesday after determining singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied their father's music to create Blurred Lines, the biggest hit song of 2013.

Marvin Gaye's daughter Nona Gaye wept as the verdict was being read and was hugged by her attorney, Richard Busch.

Mavin Gaye

The verdict could tarnish the legacy of Williams, a reliable hit-maker who has won Grammy Awards and appears on NBC's music competition show The Voice.

It was previously revealed that the song had made a staggering $16million for Pharrell, Thicke, rapper T.I. and the record company, though T.I. and various record and music companies had previously been cleared of copyright infringement charges.

The jury decided that the family should receive $4million in damages and $3.4 million in profits from the song, with Thicke forced to pay $1.7million from his own pocket and Pharrell $1.6million.

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An attorney for Thicke and Pharrell has said a decision in favor of Gaye's heirs could have a chilling effect on musicians who try to emulate an era or another artist's sound. 

All three later released a statement, saying; 'While we respect the judicial process, we are extremely disappointed in the ruling made today, which sets a horrible precedent for music and creativity going forward.

'Blurred Lines’ was created from the heart and minds of Pharrell, Robin and T.I. and not taken from anyone or anywhere else. We are reviewing the decision, considering our options and you will hear more from us soon about this matter.'

'Right now, I feel free,' an emotional Nona 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.'

This was no doubt in response to the fact that Pharrell and Thicke had filed a lawsuit against Gaye's estate back in August 2013 in an attempt to stop his family from suing them for copyright infringement.

'Plaintiffs, who have the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies, reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple adverse claims from alleged successors in interest to those artists. Defendants continue to insist that plaintiffs' massively successful composition, 'Blurred Lines,' copies 'their' compositions,' read the suit. 

This suit however was thrown out in October of that year, when a judge ruled that the family had made a sufficient showing that the two songs were similar.

'We did not start this fight… Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke started this lawsuit,” Busch said outside of the courthouse.

'We fought this fight with one arm tied behind our back.'

Mavin Gaye's family

 The Gayes' lawyer branded Pharrell and Thicke liars who went beyond trying to emulate the sound of Gaye's late-1970s music and copied the R&B legend's hit Got to Give It Up outright.

He also brought up the fact after the verdict that the defense's legal team did everything they could to stop the jury from hearing Gaye's song during the proceedings, allowing them to just listen to certain snippets of the music. 

For this reason the infringement charge only applied to the sheet music for the two songs, making the case against Thicke and Pharrell that much more difficult for the Gaye family. 

Busch however pointed out during his argument that Thicke said in interviews while promoting the single that he and Pharrell were trying to write something like Gaye's Got to Give It Up.

Thicke told jurors he didn't write Blurred Lines, which Pharrell testified he crafted in about an hour in mid-2012, as he was too high on painkillers and alcohol.

'The biggest hit of my career was written by somebody else, and I was jealous and wanted credit,' said Thicke. 

He also took time on the stand to play a variety of songs that sound similar in music and tone in an attempt to strengthen his case 

Pharrell told jurors that Gaye's music was part of the soundtrack of his youth, but the seven-time Grammy winner said he didn't use any of it to create Blurred Lines and that the songs were alike in genre only. 

The pair's lawyer maintained their innocence even after the verdict, saying; 'They're unwavering in their absolute conviction that they wrote this song independently.'

According to the Los Angeles Times, the song brought in $5.6 million for Thicke, $5.2 million for Pharrell and another $5 million to $6 million for the record company, as well as an additional $8 million in publishing revenue

Gaye's children - Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III - sued the singers in 2013 and were present when the verdict was read.

The family had initially asked for $40million in damages, but later lowered that number to $25million. 

This was based on the amount of money they believed Gaye would have been paid had he signed off on the rights to his song.

Gaye's ex-wife Janis testified that as soon as she heard the song she recognized the similarities and was thrilled thinking that this would introduce the music of her late husband to a new generation of music lovers.

That quickly turned to anger however when she learned the rights to Gaye's song had not been licensed.

Sales of the 2013 song, which has already sold 7.3million copies in the United States alone, are still going strong too, and have seen a drastic increase over the course of the trial this past few weeks.

Gaye, best known for such classics as Sexual Healing, I Heard It Through the Grapevine and How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You), was tragically murdered by his father as he tried to break up a fight between his parents and protect his mother in 1984.

The singer, just 44-years-old at the time, had been nominated for 14 Grammys at that point over the course of his brilliant but all too brief career, and left the rights to all his music to his three children.

An appeal of the ruling is already being considered by Pharrell and Thicke's lawyer.