R&B singer Robin Thicke has filed a lawsuit to protect his single “Blurred Lines” from Marvin Gaye’s family and Funkadelic’s copyrights owners, reports the NY Post. Music producer Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I., real name Clifford Harris Jr., are also named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The Funkadelic’s rights owners claim there are similarities between “Blurred Lines” and a song they own the rights to.
Gaye’s family say “Blurred Lines” borrows heavily from Marvin’s hit single “Got to Give it Up.”
From NY Post:
The lawsuit claims the “Gaye defendants are claiming ownership of an entire genre, as opposed to a specific work.”
Thicke and his co-plaintiffs pre-empted a suit from Bridgeport and the Gaye family to settle the rights and obligations of each party, THR reported.
The lawsuit says Thicke, Williams and Harris Jr. have “the utmost respect for and admiration of Marvin Gaye, Funkadelic and their musical legacies,” but must “reluctantly file this action in the face of multiple adverse claims from alleged successors in interest to those artists.”
