Jury: Robin Thicke Ripped Off Marvin Gaye

He and Pharrell owe Gaye's kids $7.4M over 'Blurred LInes'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 10, 2015 5:09 PM CDT

Catchy song, Robin Thicke. But a jury says that Marvin Gaye got there first. Jurors awarded Gaye's kids $7.4 million because they determined that Thicke's "Blurred Lines" stole from Gaye's 1977 hit "Got to Give It Up," reports the Los Angeles Times. Thicke and co-writer Pharrell Williams denied in court that they cribbed from the song, but jurors sided with a musicologist who broke down the tunes side by side and found all kinds of overlap.

Thicke made $5.6 million and Williams $5.2 million on the No. 1 hit from 2013. Jurors found them guilty, but let slide their record company and rapper T.I., who also performed on the song. In court, Williams acknowledged that the songs sounded like the "same thing," but he later said they shared "feel, not infringement," reports Variety. (More Marvin Gaye stories.)

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