Jurors reach verdict in "Blurred Lines" trial

The jury has reached a verdict in the “Blurred Lines” trial, finding that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams copied the Marvin Gaye song “Got to Give it Up.”  Although the jury found that the infringement was not willful, they awarded the Gaye estate nearly $7.4 million in damages.

Many music industry insiders as well as legal analysts have criticized the verdict as improperly lowering the bar for music copyright infringement.  The verdict is also hard to fathom given that the jurors were instructed to only consider copyrighted elements contained in the sheet music, and not the actual recording of “Got to Give it Up” (explained in my previous post here).  Although there will likely be an appeal, the decision is expected to have a chilling effect on the music industry.