At least one part of the legal battle between Sony’s EMI, Marvin Gaye’s family and Robin THicke over “Blurred Lines” has been settled. The music publisher and the family of the late “What’s Going On” singer have settled their dispute.
Back in August, Thicke pre-emptively sued the Gaye family, fearing that they were about to sue him for copyright infringement as they had claimed “Blurred Lines” sounded like the Gaye song “Got To Give It Up.” They eventually did file their suit.
However, The Hollywood Reporter notes that the Gaye family also named EMI April, which is owned by Sony, as a defendant. They claimed that EMI, which also happens to control “Blurred Lines,” didn’t protect Gaye’s song because they didn’t want to slow the success of Thicke’s song. It was even alleged that EMI’s chairman called the family to tell them not to sue.
The Associated Press and THR report that Sony and the Gaye family reached a settlement, although no terms of the deal were released.
While that aspect of the legal battle is over, the claims between Thicke and the Gaye family are still active.
“Blurred Lines” also features T.I. and Pharrell Williams. It was a huge success over the summer, scoring 6.6 million downloads and was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 weeks.
image: NBC