A jury in the United States has found award-winning musicians, Pharell Williams and Robin Thicke, guilty of copyright infringement.
The jury ruled on Tuesday that the writers of Blurred Lines, one of the best-selling singles of all time, copied a Marvin Gaye track.
Jurors in Los Angeles decided that the 2013 single by Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke breached the copyright of Gaye’s 1977 hit, Got To Give It Up. The family of the late soul singer has been awarded $7.3m (£4.8m) in damages.
Thicke and Williams denied copying the hit, and their lawyer said the ruling set a “horrible precedent.”
Richard Busch, lawyer for the Gaye family said, “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.”
Gaye died in April 1984, leaving his children the copyright to his music. His children, Nona, Frankie and Marvin Gaye III, sued Thicke and Williams in 2013 after Blurred Lines was released
“Right now, I feel free,” Nona, one of Gaye’s daughters told reporters after the ruling. “Free from Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s chains and what they tried to keep on us and the lies that were told.”
In court, Williams had told jurors that Gaye’s music was part of the soundtrack of his youth but insisted that it was not on his mind when he wrote the song.
The hit, which earned a Grammy nomination, generated more than $16m (£10.8) in profits and made more than $5m (£3m) for both stars.
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