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Pharrell warns that Blurred Lines ruling could “kill creativity”

By | Published on Friday 20 March 2015

Pharrell Williams

Pharrell Williams has warned of an imminent goldrush of copyright litigation in the wake of the verdict against him and Robin Thicke over ‘Blurred Lines’. As you might expect he would.

Williams and Thicke, of course, were sued by the family of Marvin Gaye, who successfully claimed that ‘Lines’ ripped off Gaye’s ‘Got To Give It Up’. Awarded $7.3 million in damages, the family are now trying to get Universal Music and TI to pay up for their association with the infringing track.

Speaking about the controversial ruling for the first time to the Financial Times, Williams said: “The verdict handicaps any creator out there who is making something that might be inspired by something else. This applies to fashion, music, design… anything”.

He continued: “If we lose our freedom to be inspired, we’re going to look up one day and the entertainment industry as we know it will be frozen in litigation. This is about protecting the intellectual rights of people who have ideas. Everything that’s around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there’s no creativity”.

As previously reported, Gaye’s family published an open letter this week stating their view on the situation at much greater length.



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