In March 2015, a jury ruled that Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I.’s hit song “Blurred Lines” infringed upon the copyright of Marvin Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up.” Later that year, a judge rejected the defendants’ bid for a new trial. In August 2016, they formally appealed the ruling, claiming that a “cascade of legal errors” got in the way of a fair verdict. Now, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has largely upheld the original 2015 verdict, as The Hollywood Reporter notes. This means that Robin Thicke and Pharrell are still being held liable for copyright infringement.

In the ruling (seen by Pitchfork), Circuit Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. writes, “The verdict was not against the clear weight of the evidence because there was not an absolute absence of evidence of extrinsic and intrinsic similarity between the two songs.” In addition, Judge Smith states that the damages (roughly $5.3 million and a running royalty rate of 50 percent to the Gaye family) “were proper,” and that the U.S. District Court “did not abuse its discretion” in denying a new trial back in summer 2015.

In one notable reversal, the Circuit Court ruled that T.I. and the labels that released “Blurred Lines” (UMG, Interscope, and Star Trak Entertainment) should not be held liable. (The jury did not find the parties culpable but the District Court later implicated them in copyright infringement.) According to Judge Smith, “The District Court erred for the additional reason that no evidence showed [T.I.] was vicariously liable.”

In the court’s ruling, Judge Smith also writes, “Far from heralding the end of musical creativity as we know it, our decision, even construed broadly, reads more accurately as a cautionary tale for future trial counsel wishing to maximize their odds of success.” He concludes:

We have decided this case on narrow grounds. Our conclusions turn on the procedural posture of the case, which requires us to review the relevant issues under deferential standards of review. For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the district court’s entry of judgment against [T.I.] and the Interscope Parties, and affirm the remainder of the district court’s judgment, and its order denying attorney’s fees and apportioning costs.

Read Pitchfork’s feature “Plagiarize This: A Reasonable Solution to Musical Copyright After ‘Blurred Lines’.”