{"id":3722,"date":"2013-10-31T18:19:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/10\/31\/in-dispute-over-a-song-marvin-gayes-family-files-a-countersuit\/"},"modified":"2013-10-31T18:19:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T18:19:00","slug":"in-dispute-over-a-song-marvin-gayes-family-files-a-countersuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2013\/10\/31\/in-dispute-over-a-song-marvin-gayes-family-files-a-countersuit\/","title":{"rendered":"In Dispute Over a Song, Marvin Gaye\u2019s Family Files a Countersuit"},"content":{"rendered":"


Robin Thicke\u2019s song \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d is one of the year\u2019s biggest hits, but behind the scenes the song is the focus of a bitter dispute that led Wednesday to the family of Marvin Gaye filing a copyright lawsuit. In August, Mr. Thicke and his two fellow songwriters, Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris Jr. (also known as the rapper T.I.), sued the family of Marvin Gaye in a pre-emptive strike, saying that they expected Gaye\u2019s children to claim that \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d copied Gaye\u2019s 1977 hit \u201cGot to Give It Up.\u201d <\/p>\n

The similarities between the songs \u2014 among them a smooth, retro beat and lots of falsetto \u2014 have been noted by critics and Mr. Thicke has acknowledged \u201cGot to Give It Up\u201d as an inspiration. But \u201cbeing reminiscent of a \u2018sound\u2019 is not copyright infringement,\u201d the men said in their suit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two of Gaye\u2019s children, Frankie and Nona, have responded with a countersuit, filed in United States District Court in Los Angeles. The suit says that not only does \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d infringe on their father\u2019s copyright, but that another of Mr. Thicke\u2019s songs, \u201cLove After War,\u201d also copies a Gaye song, \u201cAfter the Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the suit, which was first reported<\/a> by The Hollywood Reporter, a musicologist, Judith Finell, studied \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d and \u201cGot to Give It Up\u201d and found \u201ca constellation of at least eight distinctive and important compositional elements\u201d between them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Extending their case beyond copyright, the Gayes also sued Sony\/ATV Music Publishing, which controls the EMI publishing catalog, which includes Gaye\u2019s songs. The Gayes accuse Sony\/ATV \u2014 which is also a publisher of Mr. Williams\u2019s work \u2014 of breach of contract and of fiduciary duty by taking sides against the family in the dispute and trying to intimidate them into dropping the case. Gaye died in 1984.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Gayes, Sony\/ATV tried to persuade them that their case was frivolous, and that the company\u2019s chairman \u2014 who was not named in the suit, but is Martin N. Bandier, a well-known music executive \u2014 told the family they were \u201ckilling the goose that laid the golden egg\u201d by pursuing the case.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a statement, Sony\/ATV said that another musicologist had determined that \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d did not infringe on \u201cGot to Give It Up,\u201d and also defended its corporate role as a steward for songwriters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take our role in protecting the works of all of our songwriters from infringement very seriously,\u201d the company said. \u201cAnd while we very much treasure the works of Marvin Gaye and our relationship with the Gaye family, we regret that they have been ill advised in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both suits seek unspecified damages.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source: NY Times<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robin Thicke\u2019s song \u201cBlurred Lines\u201d is one of the year\u2019s biggest hits, but behind the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}