This archive report was first published on 30 July 2019.
On Monday, a federal jury in Los Angeles delivered a verdict in the long-running copyright infringement lawsuit between Katy Perry and Christian rapper Flame. The jury ruled that Perry's 2013 song Dark Horse infringed on the copyright of Flame's 2009 song Joyful Noise.
Published on July 29, 2019, the lawsuit, which was filed in 2014, claimed that Dark Horse incorporated beats and instrumentals similar to those in Joyful Noise. The jury will now proceed to the penalty phase, where they will determine the award for the copyright infringement violation.
Flame, whose real name is Marcus Gray, argued that his song had significant exposure prior to the release of Dark Horse in 2013, with Joyful Noise amassing millions of plays on Spotify and YouTube. The album it was included on, Our World Redeemed, also received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Or Rap Gospel Album.
Lawyers for Perry argued that the parts of the song cited by Flame were musical basics and that a loss in the suit would have a negative impact on the industry. However, the jury ultimately sided with Flame, finding that Perry and her co-writer Dr. Luke had indeed infringed on the copyright of Joyful Noise.
‘They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone,’ Perry lawyer Christine Lepera told the court last week. However, Flame's lawyer, Michael A. Kahn, countered that ‘They’re trying to shove Mr. Gray into some gospel music alleyway that no one ever visits.’
