Was it "Stolen From" or "Inspired By"?

Williams and Thicke in Blurred Lines music video

The long copyright battle between Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke versus the family of Marvin Gaye has come to an end with Williams and Thicke found guilty of copyright infringement. During my American Studies class we analyzed the songs by playing them one after another and I personally did not hear much that was similar. Though both songs have a similar beat and tone to them they don't sound exactly same to me.

Any type of artist will be inspired by artists before them, that comes with the territory. Another problem is that "there are only so many chords and notes" to use in music which makes it really easy for music to end up sounding the same. This makes me wonder why this particular song was brought to court when many other ones sound even more similar than these two. An example, given in a Chicago Tribune article, referenced two country songs Luke Bryan's "Drunk on You" and Parmalee's "Close Your Eyes". After listening to these two songs one after another I thought I was listening to the same exact song. So, if these songs sound identical then why aren't they heading to court for a lawsuit?

One of Williams' worries is that this ruling will cause the creativity of other artists to be hindered because they are scared of violating a copyright. "Everything that's around you in a room was inspired by something or someone. If you kill that, there's no creativity." I agree with Williams that a ruling like this will scare off artists in the future. What do you think? Is Williams right about the effects of the ruling?