Comment Re:This Song? There's Nothing Tricky About It (Score 1) 386
It actually isn't that cut and dry at all.
If you watch the interviews with Thicke, he readily admitted, long ago even before this court case, that they were trying to create a Gaye-inspired sound. The song is very explicitly NOT infringement, because it is not a copy.. all it is is a sound INSPIRED by the original (ie they are somewhat similar but noticeably different).
This is why this would be such a landmark change if left unchallenged. If inspiration means infringement, then for all intents and purposes, you can no longer listen to any music anymore that you did not personally create. Imagine all musicians being afraid of saying who inspires them, for fear of being sued.
That is what the outcome of this could very well be. Imagine if this was propegated to the written word... every derrivitive story about a prince and a princess, or about a angst-filled teenager playing with demons or vampires, would be considered infringement, since they all inspire from each other.
If an artist can no longer be inspired by another, art will cease to exist.