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Pharrell Williams: 'Blurred Lines verdict handicaps creators'

Written by . Published: March 20 2015

Pharrell Williams has spoken out about last week's (ends13Mar15) Blurred Lines plagiarism trial ruling, insisting the court verdict "handicaps any creator out there who is making something that might be inspired by something else".


The hitmaker and Robin Thicke were ordered to hand over $7.3 million to late soul man Marvin Gaye's family after a jury found them guilty of illegally sampling the singer's 1977 hit Got to Give It Up.


Williams, who insisted he didn't steal the hooks and melody of Gaye's tune during his testimony, plans to appeal the court ruling and he has now spoken about the decision during an interview with The Financial Times.


He says, "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 adds, "Everything that's around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there's no creativity."


An attorney for Pharrell and Thicke has told Rolling Stone magazine that his clients are "firm, rock solid, in the conclusion that they wrote this song independently from the heart and soul with no input from anyone, Marvin Gaye or anyone else."


Spurred on by the court victory, Gaye's three children have officially filed an injunction preventing the sale and distribution of Blurred Lines.


Meanwhile, Pharrell's friend and collaborator Nile Rodgers has weighed in on the verdict insisting it's "shocking" that Williams and Thicke have been found guilty of plagiarism.


The Chic star, who worked alongside Williams on Daft Punk's Get Lucky hit, claims Gaye's 1977 song and Blurred Lines "didn't really sound alike".


He tells the The Associated Press, "Compositionally, purely compositionally, I don't think they should have lost that case. Got to Give it Up is clearly a blues structure, (Blurred Lines) isn't at all."

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