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Jury finds Robin Thicke and Pharrell copied a Marvin Gaye song for Blurred Lines

Jury finds Robin Thicke and Pharrell copied a Marvin Gaye song for Blurred Lines

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Gaye family awarded $7.3 million

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Robin Thicke and Pharrell copied a classic Marvin Gaye song while writing their 2013 hit "Blurred Lines," a jury found this afternoon. According to the Associated Press, Gayes' children are being awarded $7.3 million for copyright infringement on their father's 1977 song "Got to Give It Up." The jury also found that T.I., who appeared on the track, did not infringe on Gaye's copyright. The Gaye family is now asking for an injunction on sales of "Blurred Lines," according to The Wrap's Pamela Chelin.

Gaye's family sued after noticing similarities to their father's song in the 2013 hit. Thicke had argued that he was too high and drunk to have copied Gaye, let alone legitimately contribute to the track. But he's also said to have pointed specifically to "Got to Give It Up" and asked Pharrell to make something like it, according to the Los Angeles Times. There's no hiding that musicians often emulate sounds from the past, but Gaye's lawyers argued that Thicke's song went quite a bit further than that, reportedly positing that parts of Gaye's song appeared in all but two bars of "Blurred Lines." Those similarities clearly stood out to the jury. However, the AP notes that this may not be the end of the dispute: it says that the verdict may be in for years of appeals.