Since the controversial “Blurred Lines” ruling, we’ve heard from Marvin Gaye’s family and Robin Thicke, but not from his duet partner, Pharrell Williams. As you can imagine, he’s not thrilled. Pharrell’s now speaking out against the jury’s decision, telling the Financial Times:
“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. 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.”
He also maintains that he did not copy Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up”: “There was no infringement. You can’t own feelings and you can’t own emotions … [In music] there are only the notations and the progression. Those were different.” While Pharrell doesn’t say whether or not he and Robin Thicke officially plan to file an appeal against the verdict, it certainly sounds like they might: “If you kill [inspiration], there’s no creativity.”
