Musician Nile Rodgers: ‘Blurred Lines’ copyright infringement verdict ‘shocking’

LONDON – Musician Nile Rodgers says it is “shocking” that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke were found liable for copyright infringement in the “Blurred Lines” court case, adding that he believed the song’s composition was not at all like Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give it Up.”

Rodgers, of the band Chic, has worked alongside Williams in Daft Punk’s smash hit “Get Lucky.” He said Gaye’s 1977 song and Thicke’s 2013 hit “didn’t really sound alike.”

He told The Associated Press Thursday in an interview: “Compositionally, purely compositionally, I don’t think they should have lost that case.” He added: “‘Got to Give it Up’ is clearly a blues structure, (‘Blurred Lines’) isn’t at all.”

Speaking for the first time since he and Thicke were ordered to pay $7.4 million to the Gaye family, Williams told The Financial Times the decision “handicaps” those in creative fields.

“If we lose our freedom to be inspired, we’re going to look up one day and the entertainment industry as we know it will be frozen in litigation,” he told the newspaper.