Much of the music industry heaved a collective sigh of relief when the news broke Thursday thatalleging that he copied key elements from the Marvin Gaye ‘70s hit “Let’s Get It On” for his own song “Thinking Out Loud.”
leaving in place a ruling that rejected infringement allegations over the 1971 song. The justices denied a petition aimed at reviving the case, ending six years of litigation over claims that the song’s writers, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, plagiarized the song’s iconic intro from the 1968 song “Taurus” by the group Spirit.
However, while the ultimate “Dark Horse’ decision seemed to support that premise, “Blurred Lines” seemed to say the opposite, basically stating that “feel” can be copyrighted, since it and the Marvin Gaye song were not melodically similar although even Williams admitted they“Well, the plaintiffs in the ‘Blurred Lines’ case claimed it was based on the law,” Lepera says. “It was based on substantial similarity of protectable expression — at least the jury the jury found that it [was].
While he agrees that’s an issue with an expert witness in almost any field, King adds, “The problem in a music case is, if you have a jury where no one has a music background, there is a huge reliance on the musicologist. Then it becomes what we call a battle of the experts.