'Blurred Lines' trial do-over looms as both sides lament verdict
Image: Sarah Bentham/Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Nobody is happy with the outcome of the "Blurred Lines" trial. Shall we cue it up again?
A $7.4 million jury prize apparently wasn't enough for the children
of Marvin Gaye, who have asked the court to amend the jury's verdict so
that rapper T.I. and the record companies — not held liable for
infringement by last week's verdict
— will face the music, too. They also filed a motion for an injunction
preventing "Blurred Lines" from being played or distributed anywhere
until they can get a proper licensing credit (read: get paid in
perpetuity).
In the other corner, the lawyer for Robin Thicke and Pharrell
Williams turned in paperwork this week asking for more time to file
their own response to the verdict, suggesting they intend to also ask
for a new trial. And for basically the same reason: The jury's decision
was "inconsistent."
Maybe these two can read from the same page.
In the meantime, Gaye's children Nona Gaye, Frankie Gaye, and Marvin
Gaye III had their lawyer file the injunction late Tuesday, moving the
court to immediately force the Thicke/Williams side to stop
"reproducing, distributing, performing, displaying and preparing
derivative works of the infringing work 'Blurred Lines,' or authorizing
any third-party to do the same," as well as impound all copies (whatever
that means in this digital age).
The motion also hints at the intentions of Thicke and Williams,
asserting that a ruling on the injunction can't wait on resolution of
their "planned Motion for Declaratory Relief and Motion for New Trial"
because every day the song is sold, the infringement just gets worse.
(None of this, by the way, stopped Thicke who performed "Blurred
Lines" last week for amfAR's first-ever charity gala in Hong Kong.)
While the Gayes aren't seeking a do-over, they might just be helping
to make the case for one with their Tuesday filing, which seeks to
"correct" the jury's verdict to impose sanctions against T.I. (Clifford
Harris Jr.), Interscope Records, Star Trak Entertainment, and Universal
Music, all of whom the jury exonerated. Without getting too much into
it, the motion simply says that those parties are liable for copyright
infringement "as a matter of law."
What it comes down to is this: The jury tried to split the baby. To
have it both ways. To make it, you know, not so cut-and-dried. To ...
how do you say? Blur the lines.
Thanks to that, we may be doing this dance all over again.
Source:Mashable
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