Pharrell breaks silence on Blurred Lines verdict

Pharrell Williams leaves court after testifying at trial in Los Angeles. Photo / AP

Grammy winner Pharrell Williams has broken his silence on the Blurred Lines plagiarism verdict, saying the ruling will "handicap" creators of inspired music.

Williams and Robin Thicke were ordered to hand over US$7.3 million to late soul man Marvin Gaye's family after a jury found them guilty of illegally sampling the singer's 1977 hit Got to Give It Up.

Williams, who has consistently said that he didn't steal the hooks and melody of Gaye's tune, has told The Financial Times that he plans to appeal the court ruling.

"The verdict handicaps any creator out there who is making something that might be inspired by something else," Williams said, his first comments since last week's court ruling.

"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. This is about protecting the intellectual rights of people who have ideas," he told the US publication.

He added: "Everything that's around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there's no creativity."

A lawyer for Pharrell and Thicke has told Rolling Stone magazine that his clients are "firm, rock solid, in the conclusion that they wrote this song independently from the heart and soul with no input from anyone, Marvin Gaye or anyone else."

Spurred on by the court victory, Gaye's three children have officially filed an injunction preventing the sale and distribution of Blurred Lines.

Meanwhile, Pharrell's friend and collaborator Nile Rodgers has weighed in on the verdict insisting it's "shocking" that Williams and Thicke have been found guilty of plagiarism.

Rodgers, who worked alongside Williams on Daft Punk's Get Lucky hit, claims Gaye's 1977 song and Blurred Lines "didn't really sound alike".

"Compositionally, purely compositionally, I don't think they should have lost that case. Got to Give it Up is clearly a blues structure, (Blurred Lines) isn't at all."

- AAP