Last year's court case brought by Marvin Gaye's estate against Robin Thicke & Pharrell Williams proved controversial for more than one reason.
While the pair were ultimately judged to have infringed the copyright of Gaye's song 'Got to Give It Up' on their huge hit 'Blurred Lines', many people voiced concerns that it set a worrying precedent and would see an increase in potentially unfair copyright lawsuits. In recent months, a case has been brought against Ed Sheeran for two of his songs - 'Photograph' and 'Thinking Out Loud'.
Now, over 200 musicians have signed a petition backing Thicke and Williams' appeal against the ruling, including R. Kelly, Jennifer Hudson, Hans Zimmer, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer, John Oates of Hall & Oates and members of Tears for Fears, Train, Linkin Park and more.
The petition states: "[We] are concerned about the potential adverse impact on their own creativity, on the creativity of future artists, and on the music industry in general, if the judgment in this case is allowed to stand. The verdict in this case threatens to punish songwriters for creating new music that is inspired by prior works.
"One can only imagine what our music would have sounded like if David Bowie would have been afraid to draw from Shirley Bassie (sic), or if the Beatles would have been afraid to draw from Chuck Berry, or if Elton John would have been afraid to draw from the Beatles, or if Elvis Presley would have been afraid to draw from his many influences.”
Thicke & Williams were ordered to pay over $5 million to Gaye's estate in the ruling.
