Truth rating: 10
4:28 pm, August 16th, 2013
(Getty Images)
Robin Thicke’s massive summer hit “Blurred Lines” is at the center of a new lawsuit filed by the singer.
Thicke and his collaborators, Pharrell and T.I., are fighting back at allegations that their song rips off legendary acts Marvin Gaye and George Clinton’s Funkadelic – and they’ve taken the battle to court.
Representatives for both the late Gaye’s family and Bridgeport Music, which owns some of the rights to Funkadelic’s music, have accused Thicke of using musical elements from ”Got to Give It Up” and “Sexy Ways,” respectfully.
Now Thicke is asking a judge to legally declare that “Blurred Lines” does NOT infringe on any copyrights, and that they “created a hit and did it without copying anyone else’s composition.”
“The basis of the Gaye defendants’ claims is that ‘Blurred Lines’ and ‘Got to Give It Up’ ‘feel’ or ‘sound’ the same,” state the legal docs. “Being reminiscent of a ‘sound’ is not copyright infringement. The intent in producing ‘Blurred Lines’ was to evoke an era.”
The lawsuit is a pre-emptive move by Thicke, who says he’s been threatened to provide monetary compensation to Gaye’s family and Bridgeport, or face litigation.
Since news of the legal battle broke on Thursday, Clinton took to Twitter to insist that he personally has no problem with “Blurred Lines” and has nothing to do with Bridgeport’s accusations.
“No sample of #Funkadelic’s ‘Sexy Ways’ in @RobinThicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ – yet [Bridgeport head] Armen Boladian thinks so? We support @RobinThicke @Pharrell!” he tweeted.
The lawsuit was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Follow @GossipCop on Twitter!
Like us on Facebook!
You might like:
