Katy Perry & Capitol Records Ordered To Pay $2.78M For Copying Song
In White Folks News: Katy Perry & Capitol Records Ordered To Pay $2.78M For Copying Christian Rap Song
Source: Derrick Salters/WENN.com / WENN
Katy Perry Personally Responsible For $500K In “Dark Horse” Lawsuit
Katy Perry and her collaborators at Capitol Records have been ordered to pay $2.78 million after a federal jury ruled that the pop star copied one of her hit songs.
The jury previously found that Perry’s 2013 hit “Dark Horse” copied a 2009 Christian rap song titled “Joyful Noise.”
It’s a victory for rapper Marcus Gray, whose 5-year-old lawsuit survived constant court challenges and a trial against top-flight attorneys for Perry and the five other musicians who wrote her song. The amount won, however, falls short of the nearly $20 million sought by attorneys for Gray and the song’s two co-writers.
Katy Perry herself was hit for just over $550,000 of the total, with Capitol Records responsible for the biggest part of the award — $1.2 million.
Perry’s attorney, Christine Lepera, said that they plan to vigorously fight this decision.
The pop star took the witness stand on the first day of the trial, testifying that she had never heard of Gray or “Joyful Noise” before he sued. The jury then heard testimony from musicologists on the disputed section of the two songs — a piece of the musical backing track that plays during the verses of “Dark Horse” and throughout almost all of “Joyful Noise.”
If the judge upholds the verdict, the case will almost certainly head to an appeals court, where jury awards in similar cases have often been changed or thrown out in recent years.
