Have you heard about the lawsuit against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke? Which side are you on?
Whether you love or hate “Blurred Lines” and whether you’re siding with these two music icons or the legendary Marvin Gaye, this lawsuit raises questions for digital entrepreneurs like us.
Today I’m taking a public stance on this controversial, $7.3M lawsuit and telling you why I’m taking a closer look at inspiration versus copying in my own business and why you should, too.
Let’s have an honest conversation about these two words and how they play out in your business. You know, so you can also avoid getting sued.
Inspiration or Copying?
In case you haven’t heard, Marvin Gaye’s family sued Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke “for similarities based on inspiration and not replication” between Williams and Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” and Gaye’s “Got To Give It Up.”
Take a listen to each and see what you think. Do they sound similar? Similar enough to warrant a lawsuit?
I think we’d agree that the beginning of the songs sound similar, but beyond the beat in first 30 seconds, my untrained ears hear two different tunes.
Was “Blurred Lines” inspired by “Got To Give It Up”? I have no idea. Is there legal basis for this suit? Probably.
But I don’t like it.
I believe everything is inspired by everything else. There are quite possibly zero 100% unique ideas.
Think about anything you love, like a book, movie, gadget, or recipe. Whoever created that thing was inspired to create it from something else.
As Pharrell said in a recent statement, “Everything that’s around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there’s no creativity.”
In Borrowing Brilliance, David Kord Murray says that the core of innovation includes borrowing ideas. Yes, you should borrow ideas when you’re looking to innovate.
In Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim suggests that we should look at the market and find a way to separate ourselves from the crowd. I think that’s definitely considered “inspiration and not replication.”
Copying Happens
The truth is that copying happens, intentionally or not.
I’ve had my “Steal This!” blog series title copied. I’ve had variations of my tagline “borrowed” several times. And I’m guessing I’ve unintentionally borrowed language from others, too.
Often we copy others unknowingly. We read something, and then three weeks later when brainstorming for our businesses, we have words pop to mind that seem to be our own…. but were actually from that email we read earlier.
Other times, copying is a form of laziness. It’s easier to use someone else’s words as our own than put in brainpower to find our own words to express a similar concept.
That’s why people love to borrow “Go Pro” from Marie Forleo, “Uplevel” from Christine Kane, and “Elevate” from Ali Brown.
When I wanted to talk about a similar concept for my own audience, I didn’t want to use those women’s words. I sat down to find my own. “Raise the Bar” is now my own blog series teaching you to do just that.
Where Is The Line?
Where is the line between inspiration and copying?
In many cases, unfortunately, this is a question for the lawyers. You need to do your due diligence, trademark and copyright your work as appropriate, make sure you’re not infringing on another’s trademark or copyright. Definitely get a lawyer to help you here.
In other cases, it’s just using common sense and your brain. You might be inspired by my “Steal This!” post title, but you shouldn’t use it. Instead, find the words that represent what you would say to express that same idea.
I love the elegance of “Go Pro” but those aren’t my words, so I found my own to use.
It’s wonderful to be inspired by someone else. Instead of copying it, however, take it’s energy, harness it, and make it better. Make it yours. Take it further than they did, and do it in your own way.
That’s where great things, just like “Blurred Lines,” come from.
What Do You Think?
We are always inspired by others, but I’m not convinced it’s worth a lawsuit. This is why I want to hear from you on this!
First off, do you think “Blurred Lines” sounds like “Got To Give It Up”?
If you’re with me, let’s tweet Pharrell and Robin and tell them we’re on their side.
(If you don’t agree with me, that’s okay. I’d love to hear more in the comments below.)
Where do you think the line is separating inspiration and copying?
Have you been copied?
Have you unintentionally copied others, often realizing this after the fact?
Let’s have some fun with this topic. I can’t wait to hear from you in the comments below.
Lawyer here, and as one, I don’t have on opinion on the lawsuit based on the media, or my own (lack of) musical hearing (seriously, I suck terribly at music). Legal issues are complex and I prefer to reserve any opinion for when I read the judgement.
That being said, I believe it is amazing to be inspired…but when we are we have two options in my ethics book:
1) Quote the person, acknowledge the original creator. Tag them, mention them, whatever. Don’t go around pretending the idea is yours.
2) Transform the idea into your own, as you rightly say in your blog post.
3) I’ll add a third one: combine the two above. Inform you were inspired by X person and thank them for the inspiration, then show how you transformed their creation.
Everybody loves to inspire. Getting copied, though, leaves a very icky feeling.
Marcela, I agree and love what you have to say! Jenny, this is such a great post for current times. Thanks for the food for thought!
Another lawyer here, and Jenny I just love that you ask where the line is between inspiration and copying, and one of the songs is called “Blurred Lines.”
When you simply listen to the song you absolutely hear the similarities, but that’s not what the issue was. Plaintiff had to prove that specific elements in the sheet music were copied. That’s a higher standard and apparently the jury was convinced copying had occurred.
Maybe this is a good thing: maybe we all need to be more cautious and respectful of “specific elements” of other people’s copyrighted work
I love that you raise the discussion here, Jenny. And you, by the way, inspire me!
Great comment Lin!
I love this Blog Jenny. Thank you for writing this, this is a highly popular ranted about subject and I am so happy that you wrote about it! This lawsuit, to me is a bit ridiculous.. Though I didn’t hear about it before. I love all types of music, one being heavy metal and this brings to mind two bands I like, Metalica and Avenged Sevenfold. For anyone who cares anything about this music, feel free to check out the extreme similarities of these two songs that I post below, so similar in fact that someone took the time to combine them into one. No one sued each other over it! People should be honored when they inspire others. Just my opinion 🙂
I specifically don’t like bands like Avenged Sevenfold, and Volbeat for ALL of the bands that they copy. Not to say these guys aren’t talented musicians…but….I can’t listen to their music without searching my mind-files for the original song. (“oh yeah, sounds just like…”)Avenged even went as far as to use another favorite band,Overkill’s logo! Yet Some would argue that Overkill’s winged skull was inspired by the Hell Angels Logo. So I guess inspiration is everywhere. Frustrating for innovators. I’ve been working with Goddess energy for 25 years now..when it wasn’t fashionable…It’s pretty mainstream now…Goddess-this, Goddess-that, Maybe it’s a good thing?
Hi, Jenny! You know, I was thinking the very same thing when I heard about this lawsuit, and I am glad that you wrote about it! There really is nothing new under the sun, but we all can put our personal spin on what we offer. I agree with Marcela 100% in all three steps she lists–sort of like what you do when you write a research paper and make citations. Always a way to make something your own while acknowledging your personal inspirations. 🙂
This is a very timely post for me as I’m in the process of creating a new website. Right now I’m working on my About page and naturally I went around to some of my favorite sites to get some inspiration from their pages.
I put together part of a draft and as I was re-reading there were some places where it just didn’t sound like me. I was crossing that fine line of being inspired by other’s words and copying their words.
I scrapped the first draft and went in with a different strategy – instead of simply going over about pages I liked, I actually asked myself what was it that I like about their page. For example a lot of the pages I liked had powerful copy full of personality and high-quality graphics/images.
So instead of unintentionally copying the language and words they used, I’m now figuring out how to create powerful copy that is full of my own personality.
So I completely agree about there being a super fine line between inspired by and copying, especially when you unintentionally copy someone else.
What an awesome distinction to make! I love your approach!
I think its silly and I agree with you. Many people said the same thing about Lady Gaga and Madonna on one of her songs. She said it was a complement and said she didnt think it was her song. Its all context. I wonder sometimes if people want money and it has nothing to do with anything else.
I just sent you a reply about this email, but you are “right on the money.” It’s definitely a good thing to bring to light and to have a conversation on. Inspiration is a great thing….who’s to say that if someone says some great inspiring words and another repeats it in a different way to the same crowd but different times and more people have “aha” moments that it’s a bad thing? We’re here to make the world a better place, we all know our own intent and we know right from wrong, so in the end the answer whether we copied or were inspired is only within us, no judge/jury can decide that for us!
Totally agree with Marcela (though I’m not a lawyer!).
I think it’s really great to have conversations about copying vs inspiring, copyright, protecting yourself online etc, but I’m afraid I can’t stand the lyrics of the song, Blurred Lines. Some of them (like “I know you want it”) are fine, but the video combined with rape-y lyrics, such as:
“I’ll give you something big enough to tear your *ss in two…
Baby can you breathe?”
Maybe it’s because I have a teenage daughter who’s a feministo-in-the-making, or I’m worried my son will have a corrupted view of relationships from the way girls are portrayed in the media! Maybe it’s because I love Marvin Gaye. But I like Pharell’s voice too and some of the songs he’s helped produce with other artists are amazing, so I’m gutted he wrote such a horrid song, even if the beat is catchy.
On the plus side, Blurred Lines inspired a number of very funny spoof videos by women.
I wonder if musicians would feel as compelled to sue one another in situations like these if they were able to make a living off of their work without having to fight recording labels and corporate control of the music industry…
If Google creates something for its phones that looks mighty similar to what Apple has already done, Apple kind of shrugs it off, knowing that they will still sell tons of their product (or vice versa) and that they still have loyal followers. But in the world of music, the few rights companies (ASCAP, BMI, etc.) get to decide which musicians are compensated for things like radio play, and the rubrics used are secret and often grossly unfair to the artists. So, if one artist is inspired by another and the second is able to make oodles and oodles of cash…well, I can imagine why this gets nasty. (That said, I have NO idea what Marvin Gaye’s estate is worth, or what he has or hasn’t made from his illustrious career.)
I think that if we are able to make a living off of our ideas and be recognized by happy customers, we can let go of the jealous feeling that makes us want to fight someone else and say, “That’s mine and you stole it!” It’s when our ideas are taken without our being able to capitalize on them–and when we feel like our creations never make us connected to others–that we become very small.
No, Apple does the exact opposite of shrugging it off: they sue BIG TIME.
They are actually famous for secrecy when a product is in development until it has been trademarked to the teeth and if you go back to listen to Steve Job’s unveiling of the Ipod Speech he mentions it too. He was very famous for that and Apple still is.
Love this post.
Laughed out loud when I saw you quote Marie with “go pro”, knowing that is Steven Pressfield’s.
Never understood this type of lawsuit. Guessing Marvin would have no part of it.
Brooke
Ha! Now that is funny!!!
Elizabeth Zimmermann (my knitting guru) used to say she “unvented” things as she shared your thought there was nothing new under the sun. I used to be shy about telling people the source of my inspiration but I’ve realized we many not have any new ideas but the genius is hearing a idea through someone else’s filter. Love this post Jenny!