blurred lines

It’s Official: Robin Thicke and Pharrell Have to Pay Up Over ‘Blurred Lines’

“Blurred Lines.” Photo: YouTube

The music trial of the decade has come to its bitter end. On Monday, a California federal judge ruled once and for all that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams will indeed have to pay Marvin Gaye’s family a pretty penny for plagiarizing “Got to Give It Up” in Thicke’s song “Blurred Lines.” Thicke and Pharrell previously lost the landmark case in 2015 with an original verdict deciding they’d have to pay in the $7 million range, later reduced to $5.3 million. (The song itself made the stars a cool $16 million at the time, it was revealed during the trial.) The case then entered the limbo stage of the appeals process, which Thicke and Pharrell officially lost earlier this year.

In the new judgement, Thicke and Pharrell have been ordered to pay Gaye’s family $4,983,766.85, divvied up between the two artists and Pharrell’s publishing company More Water From Nazareth. (T.I., the song’s featured artist, is off the hook.) The cost covers both damages awarded to the Gaye family as well as the penalty for copyright infringement. According to Billboard, the Gaye family stands to make even more in interest. They are also entitled to half of the songwriting and publishing royalties made from “Blurred Lines” for the rest of time. So while this case is officially closed, Thicke and Pharrell’s pockets will still be feeling it for a good while.

Robin Thicke, Pharrell Ordered to Pay Over ‘Blurred Lines’