No money has changed hands as of now;  and who knows how many years this will be in the courts.  
 
Huge judgments in many cases are drastically reduced after appeals;
 
 
but if this verdict sticks it's going to be a very interesting music business. As mentioned in a few posts above 'copying' whether intentional or subconsciously, happens all the time.

In other gnus, all blues artists are now guilty of copyright infringement. Lawyers were disappointed to realize that these artists were already bankrupt, so there is no money to collect. 

I've always loved how some people try to turn subjective, grey-area subjects into black and white.

...or white and gold.

Sound TM (R) came in to affect in the mid 90s, which is an extension of the IP rights under WTO / TRIPS agreement.
 
Recently there's been a trend to revive past styles (genres) and that's okay if producers make it their 'own unique sound' that isn't all too similar of the original -- Sound TM (R) is a loose manner of matching, whereas (compared to) melody matching is a straight forward process of determination using notation.
 
Ya' just gotta hope none of the jury are tone deaf lol but I think in this particular case, a panel of experts may need to be weighed into the determination process.
 
Meanwhile, lets see if this case sets a precedence for all future cases in regards to Sound TM (R),
 
I wouldn't be surprised if there are 'in the works' (more revivals to be released), producers pacing frantically about the studio, knees are a knocking, finger nails trimmed to the bone, eyes glued to latest news feed in regards to the outcome of this case. Oh well its no news to me the way labels love to follow a so-called sure-fire trend rather than take the risk on a totally new unique style i.e. a lot of great bands, great songs are initially rejected for that reason; they don't fit in with the trend. IMHO, better off being an independent band doing their own 'unique' thang!
 
 

UbiquitousBubba
In other gnus, all blues artists are now guilty of copyright infringement. Lawyers were disappointed to realize that these artists were already bankrupt, so there is no money to collect. 

 Best post of the day!!

slartabartfast
The message for anyone writing a popular song in the current era is that if you think it will be a hit, you are probably better off just trashing it, and setting your lyric to something that is clearly in the public domain like Greensleeves or Beautiful Dreamer.

Which is fine unless you try and copyright the melody itself as sometimes happens. Many years ago a (rather controversial) now deceased English folk-music collector copyrighted loads of songs and dance music he'd collected from traditional singers and musicians and assigned publishing rights to himself. Some of that music is known to be 150+ years old so there's no way it was his intellectual property. Yet if you record some of the traditional music he collected you might find yourself getting a bill for royalties "payable to the estate of....". One unscrupulous character can cause decades worth of problems where copyrightis concerned.

[Post deleted to avoid © infringement in the event someone else posted same or eerily similar comments.... I'd hate to loose millions over something assessed @2¢]
 
[To see what ©ed blurred lines actually look like, go here -->http://forum.cakewalk.com/What-Copyrighted-Blurred-Lines-look-like-m3190152.aspx#3190152

Interestingly, for some bizarre reason they were not permitted to play the entire Marvin Gaye song in court - only extracts!  The LA Times said:-
 
"The eight-person jury, most of whom appeared to be more of Gaye's generation than Thicke and Williams' demographic, heard "Blurred Lines" several times during the trial and twice watched the raunchy music video — but never got to hear the full recording of 'Got to Give It Up.' Because laws when Gaye wrote the song allowed only the sheet music composition, not the sound recording, to be copyrighted, jurors heard short snippets and a stripped-down version created by Thicke and Williams' musicologist with just Gaye's vocals over a bass line and chords on a keyboard."
 
That's crazy and a miscarriage of justice in my opinion!

Yeah!  What's going on?