The family of Marvin Gaye seem to have been inspired by their recent court win over Robin Thicke. Now they are going after T.I..
The singer’s family, who won a $7.4 million judgement last week when it was found that Robin Thicke and Pharrell William’s Blurred Lines was substantially copied from Gaye’s Got to Give It Up, are evidently still not satisfied. It was later revealed that they were considering a new case against Williams over his mega-hit Happy and its similarities to Gaye’s Ain’t That Peculiar and, now, are going back to the judge in the Blurred Lines case to get further money.
In the new motions, they want the judge to consider overturning the jury’s decision that rapper T.I., (Clifford Harris, Jr.) who also appeared on the record, was not responsible for the parts of the song that were copied. In addition, they want the judge to add Universal Music, Interscope Records and Star Trek Entertainment to the list of entities that infringed on Got to Give It Up.
At stake could be Universal Music’s ability to further distribute the song Blurred Lines in physical form or via download sites. The Gayes have said that the barring of sales of the song is not their aim, but only an end to the means of negotiating future royalties on all sales.
The real question here is, when is enough enough. Most legal experts have already questioned the jury verdict which, essentially, found that the rhythm and arrangement were what was copied from the original record and NOT the song, setting a new precedent in copyright cases, one that opens the doors to a much more fuzzy interpretations of what is true infringement. The Gaye family had best be careful in their further overreach as it could have an effect on Thicke and Williams’ upcoming appeal.
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