Robin Thicke & Pharrell Denied New Trial, Plus T.I. Gets Jobbed In Latest “Blurred Lines” Ruling

Carl Williott | July 15, 2015 8:32 am
Brandon Flowers Defends "Blurred Lines" Verdict
The Killers singer thinks more artists should be sued for stealing. Isn't it ironic?

A few weeks ago, Robin Thicke addressed the “Blurred Lines” copyright infringement verdict publicly for the first time. He was obviously disappointed, but was hopeful that his appeal bid with Pharrell would eventually alter the ruling. But on Tuesday (July 14), the judge presiding over the “Blurred Lines” trial handed down some more losses for the artists — and this time T.I. didn’t escape unscathed.

On the bright side, Judge John A. Kronstadt reduced the verdict from $7.4 million to $5.3 million. But that’s basically where the good news ends for the “Blurred Lines” artists. To balance out the reduced payout, he also ruled that the Gaye estate will receive half of all future royalties from the song, according to The Associated Press.

In addition, Kronstadt rejected their bid for a new trial. (So if they hope to reverse the decision now, they’ll have to go through the appeals system, which they were already planning to do anyway.) And in another bit of bad news handed down by the judge, featured rapper T.I. is now included in the copyright infringement ruling, even though the jury found that he did not commit copyright infringement.

How this makes sense is beyond me. If the dude just offered up his rap verse and it happened to be used on the “copied” parts of the song, which were produced and written by others, how is he culpable? To my untrained legal mind, this seems like punishing an actor because the director of the movie was using stolen equipment.

Who would’ve thought that dopey, catchy song would lead to such heated legal debates.

[via Rolling Stone]