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Personal Take: - On Serving as an Expert Witness in the ‘Blurred Lines’ Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2019

By
Ingrid Monson
Edited by
Nicholas Cook ,
Monique M. Ingalls  and
David Trippett
Nicholas Cook
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Monique M. Ingalls
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
David Trippett
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

In this essay, I describe the experience of serving as an expert witness in the copyright infringement lawsuit popularly known as the Blurred Lines case. The case hinged on similarities between Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke’s song ‘Blurred Lines’ and the Marvin Gaye hit ‘Got to Get It On’, but the nature of the Copyright Act of 1909 used in the case raises key questions of definition. Is a popular song comprised of only the melody and the chords with everything else considered arrangement? Or does the nature of popular music as frequently aurally composed or groove-based indicate that we should expand our understanding of creative composition?

Keywords

Blurred LinesMarvin GayeGot to Give It Upcopyrightaural composition
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture , pp. 58 - 62
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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