Thicke, Williams ordered to pay $5 million for infringement

LOS ANGELES (UPI) — A Federal judge in California ordered a final judgement of nearly $5 million to the family of Marvin Gaye for Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams‘ copyright infringement in their song “Blurred Lines.” District Judge John A. Kronstadt said the two artists must jointly pay Gaye’s family damages of $2.9 million. Separately, Thicke must pay $1.7 million and More Water From Nazareth Publishing — Williams’ publishing company — must pay $357,631. The final judgment, issued Monday, was a reduction from the initial $7.4 million judgment. The song “Blurred Lines” was released in 2013, hitting No. 1 and earning the artists some $16.6 million in revenue. Gaye’s family sued later that year saying it infringed upon his 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up.” Gaye died in 1984. In March, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower jury’s decision that there was in fact infringement. Thicke and Williams’ lawyers argued that the lawsuit went too far in protecting the generic elements of a song’s style shared between the two tracks. Reporting by Danielle Haynes