Plagiarism wars put rhythm and beats under the legal microscope – National
When a jury ruled that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had plagiarized Marvin Gaye’s 1977 hit Got to Give It Up for their song Blurred Lines, a lot of songwriters felt a chill blowing in from that courtroom.
In the jury’s estimation, the two songs sounded too much alike and therefore the writers of Blurred Lines infringed on Gaye’s copyright. In short, this was plagiarism, one of the most damaging charges that can be laid on a composer.
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The estate was awarded US$7.4 million (later lowered to US$5.3 million on appeal). If you examine the sheet music of both songs, you’ll see that they don’t have much in common note-wise. Where they are similar is the feel and groove. Those musical ...