A court has ruled that Katy Perry copied her 2013 song Dark Horse from the Christian rap song Joyful Noise by Flame (Marcus Tyrone Gray).
Perry’s team argued that the beat of both songs are “commonplace,” and couldn’t be copyrighted.
“They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music that should be available to everyone,” Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera said during her closing statement.
However, after a week-long trial, it was determined that Dark Horse “copied an important part of the song”.
Producers Dr Luke, Max Martin and Cirkut as well as the six songwriters on Dark Horse were all found liable for copyright infringement. This includes Katy Perry herself as well as featured rapper Juicy J.
It is yet to be determined how much in damages will be owed to Gray.
Dark Horse was one of Perry’s biggest hits, selling more than 13 million copies worldwide. The music video has been watched more than 2.6 billion times, and was the first by a female artist to reach a billion views on both YouTube and Vevo.
The ruling follows another high-profile court case on sampling in Europe this week involving a claim by Kraftwerk of copyright infringement.
By Kayla Effner
