Marvin Gaye's Family vs. "Blurred Lines"

[marxthespot_]

First of all, the instigator of the lawsuit is Robin Thicke, not Marvin Gaye's estate... Thicke wants the court to say that 'Blurred Lines" does not "infringe" on Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up." The two songs are quite different, but the arrangement and instrumentation and the periodic 'Wooos" are a direct copy of GTGIU... I don't think copying [[not sampling) the sound and of another song is considered infringement. If that was considered infringment then Sheryl Crow should have sued for "All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun" by the group Stealers Wheel because it copied their song "Stuck In The Middle With You."

What I find interesting is that Thicke acted first as if he was afraid that "Blurred Lines" was too much like Marvin's "Got To Give It Up." Sounds like he knows he did just that... I find it unconscionable that Thicke stirred the pot to the point that the Gaye Estate now needs to retain a lawyer... I would be pissed to have to retain a lawyer because someone is suing me because THEY copied something that I have ownership of... Because of that, I would never buy a Robin Thicke anything... He should be ashamed of himself re this lawsuit....

[jillfoster]

First of all, the instigator of the lawsuit is Robin Thicke, not Marvin Gaye's estate... Thicke wants the court to say that 'Blurred Lines" does not "infringe" on Marvin Gaye's "Got To Give It Up." The two songs are quite different, but the arrangement and instrumentation and the periodic 'Wooos" are a direct copy of GTGIU... I don't think copying [[not sampling) the sound and of another song is considered infringement. If that was considered infringment then Sheryl Crow should have sued for "All I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun" by the group Stealers Wheel because it copied their song "Stuck In The Middle With You."

What I find interesting is that Thicke acted first as if he was afraid that "Blurred Lines" was too much like Marvin's "Got To Give It Up." Sounds like he knows he did just that... I find it unconscionable that Thicke stirred the pot to the point that the Gaye Estate now needs to retain a lawyer... I would be pissed to have to retain a lawyer because someone is suing me because THEY copied something that I have ownership of... Because of that, I would never buy a Robin Thicke anything... He should be ashamed of himself re this lawsuit....

From what I understand, members of the Gaye family have been "threatening" to sue in interviews, and this is a pre-emptive strike, like Soulster said. Pretty brilliant. Gaye's family shot their mouths off, and now it's costing them. Alot of it comes from ignorance. So many people just look at music on the surface, and if the style and "sound" is similar, they somehow think it's copyright infringment, when it's not.I had a friend who couldn't fathom how George Harrison got sued for "My Sweet Lord" [[Because it "sounded" so different from "He's So Fine"), until I played it for him, and sung the lyrics to "He's So Fine" over it. Those songs sound NOTHING alike, but yet "My Sweet Lord" totally meets the requirement of plagarism [[though accidental) "Blurred Lines" does not, Gaye's family obviously aren't musically savvy enough to analyze the songs on an elemental level and see that. There have been TONS of instances of songs in musical history that copy the sound and style of another hit record, without being close to plagarism on a structural level... this being one of the biggest examples: