You all have probably already heard of it:
The most famous song about rape and Jamaican cacti is a plagiarism of
Got to Give It Up by Marvin Gaye, the song which Thicke personally claimed was an influence on "Blurred Lines".
On March 10, 2015, a jury found Thicke and Pharrell Williams liable for copyright infringement. The unanimous jury awarded Gaye's family
US$7.4 million in damages for copyright infringement.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/10/entertainment/feat-thr-marvin-gaye-robin-thicke-pharrell-lose-blurred-lines-lawsuit/index.htmlThat verdict is highly controversial, as it is supposed to restrict musicians' creativity. Keith Urban said that
"My initial reaction from it, I was shocked, honestly. Seems more like a sound and a feel and a style and a genre and an era, none of which can be copyrighted." Classical music critic Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times pointed out that many classical composers used material from previous composers saying that
"John Williams all but lifted the core idea of his soundtrack score from the Scherzo of Erich Korngold's Symphony in F-sharp Minor, written 25 years earlier."Thicke and Williams have announced their intention to appeal the verdict.
The third video within the CNN aticle is pretty instructive; legal analyst Paul Callan, who is extremely skeptical about the validity of the verdict, explains the difference between copying a whole song and copying elements of a song, and he explains the importance of sheet music for a plagiarism case.
And here is Nona Gaye's extremely theatrical and affected interview:
https://youtu.be/ctM515BeaA8
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