Originally Posted by
Northman
Not sure to be honest. On the surface it bothers me only that artists make a really huge deal out of downloading/sharing and have even attempted to sue some people who have done those kinds of things. But then when artists end up plagiarizing willingly or unwillingly another artist they want the freedom to do so without consequence. Now, i have no idea how much a like both Blurred Lines and Got to Give it Up (both songs i like) are but if an artist ends up copying someone else's work and they make money off of it they should be held accountable to those standards. I remember when Vanilla Ice did Ice Ice Baby and ended up using a sample from Queen and then tried to say he rearranged the actual riff but in reality he really didnt. At least not enough to distinguish a real difference from the other song. To my knowledge guys like Puff Daddy had to get permission to use samples from bands like The Police, David Bowie, etc when he did his most famous release back in the 90's. So even if Thicke did not mean to use the Marvin Gaye sample he is still responsible to address the issue when it arises. Its understandable that an artist may at any point subconsciously use a riff or beat that they might have heard before for a song they are creating but it doesnt exclude them from being sued financially for it. IMO