{"id":1157,"date":"2015-03-03T17:00:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T22:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2023-07-25T12:17:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T16:17:50","slug":"blurred-lines-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jsel\/2015\/03\/blurred-lines-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Blurred Lines Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And the fight continues&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/626345\/gayes-expert-faces-absent-notes-at-blurred-lines-trial\">Law360<\/a>, the lawsuit began in August 2013 when\u00a0the now defendants (Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and rapper T.I.) asked the court for a declaratory judgment to prove their, song &#8220;Blurred Lines,&#8221; did not infringe Marvin Gaye&#8217;s &#8220;Got to Give It Up.&#8221; This strategic move backfired, as they now find themselves defending the song upon a countersuit by Gaye&#8217;s children. In addition, to asserting the defendants infringed &#8220;Got to Give It Up,&#8221; Gaye&#8217;s heirs\u00a0also claim that Thicke&#8217;s &#8220;Love After War&#8221; infringes Gaye&#8217;s &#8220;After the Dance.&#8221; However, the case became more complicated once Thicke admitted that he did not author &#8220;Blurred Lines&#8221; as previously asserted, and that Williams was wrongfully not credited as the writer of the track. This cast a shadow of doubt on the authenticity of the song and the defendants&#8217; testimony. Yet, in January, Judge Kronstadt supported the defendants by finding that Gaye&#8217;s children only held the copyright in the written sheet music rather than the sound recording (which is owned by Universal Music Group) of &#8220;Got to Give It Up.&#8221; This is\u00a0important because Kronstadt ruled that the sheet music did not contain the allegedly infringing components of the song. Moreover, last week, the plaintiffs&#8217; expert Judith Finell could not identify the supposed copied musical riff in the sheet music. Nevertheless, she contended that the the chords\u00a0in the sheet music implied the infringed notes&#8211;that a professional singer would automatically sing them based on the sheet music which acted more as a guideline for the singer. The case continues today and (seems) will scour all potential ways a musical artist can infringe a musical work&#8211;possibly setting precedent for future cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And the fight continues&#8230;. According to Law360, the lawsuit began in August 2013 when\u00a0the now defendants (Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and rapper T.I.) asked the court for a declaratory judgment to prove their, song &#8220;Blurred Lines,&#8221; did not infringe Marvin Gaye&#8217;s &#8220;Got to Give It Up.&#8221; This strategic move backfired, as they now find themselves 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