Deborah Mannis-Gardner, president of sample clearing house DMG Clearances discusses the repercussions of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” $7.3 million dollar lawsuit in an interview with Forbes.
A Los Angeles jury found Thicke and Williams liable for copyright infringement, agreeing that “Blurred Lines” does contain elements of Gaye’s 1977 hit “Got to Give It Up,” last March.
“It can have very bad consequences, and I look forward to Robin Thicke’s people appealing the decision, which they have the right [to do],” Mannis-Gardner says. “I find the whole thing ludicrous and wrong. I think that there are consequences from what the Marvin estate has done.”
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As a sample clearing agent who has been working with the likes of Cash Money, Kendrick Lamar, Puff Daddy and Kanye West for over 25 years, Deborah believes that urban music is unfairly targeted for lawsuits when it comes to sampling compared to other genres.
“I’m very disappointed in the whole situation,” the Philly native says. “I wasn’t happy with the people that spoke on behalf of the Marvin Gaye side. The fact that they sequestered and did not allow Dr. Ferrara’s musicology report to be reviewed. He’s the pre-eminent musicologist that everyone uses in the Hip Hop community whenever anyone questions anything. He’s the person that the Gaye Estate hired and then they withdrew his report.”
Since the ruling, songwriters and producers have been worried about being sued for creating music that sounds similar to others however, the DMG Clearances head says that there’s a distinct difference between copyright infringement and inspiration.
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“I mean if you think about it, The Beatles were influenced by Chuck Berry,” she says. “The Rolling Stones were influenced by Muddy Waters, and let’s talk about Marvin Gaye. Who influenced Marvin Gaye? Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra. They even said that Marvin Gaye had the same style as Sam Cooke. So where do we take this? That’s the whole basis of music.”
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