Earlier this month R&B singer Robin Thicke filed a preemptive copyright lawsuit against the Estate of Marvin Gaye to prevent them from suing him for stealing elements of 'Got to Give It Up' for his hit single "Blurred Lines" ft. Pharell and T.I. [click here if you missed that].
Turns out before he tried to sue them, he tried to pay them off...
From Billboard
Billboard has learned that Robin Thicke’s team offered a six-figure sum to members of Marvin Gaye family in order to preempt a copyright infringement showdown, but the family turned it down.
According to sources knowledgeable with the lawsuit, the settlement offer came after Frankie Christian Gaye, Marvin Gaye III and Nona Marvisa Gaye accused Thicke's "Blurred Lines" hit single of plagiarizing "Got To Give it Up," written and composed by Marvin Gaye, who died in 1984.
Subsequently, Thicke, along with "Blurred Lines" co-writers Pharrell Williams and Clifford Harris, Jr., filed a lawsuit on Aug. 15 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles requesting a ruling that "Blurred Lines" does not infringe on "Got To Give It Up." It also requested a similar judgement with regard to another accusation, by Bridgeport Music Inc., that "Blurred Lines" infringed on George Clinton's "Sexy Ways."
