Katy Perry and Dr. Luke are facing a big pay-out after losing a plagiarism case against Christian star Marcus Gray.
A nine-member federal jury has ruled the pair’s 2013 hit Dark Horse was lifted from 2009 rap song Joyful Noise, which Gray co-wrote and performed as Flame.
The jury members will now decide how much the plaintiffs are owed for copyright infringement following Monday’s verdict.
Gray’s attorneys argued that almost half of Dark Horse was substantially similar to Gray’s Joyful Noise and accused her of “creating a false association between the music of Joyful Noise and the anti-Christian witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by Defendants’ Song”, according to documents obtained by The Blast. Flame alleges Perry’s song destroyed his reputation in the Christian music world, because his track is now associated with hers.
Perry’s lawyer, Christine Lepera, said, “They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone”, in her closing argument.
Her client wasn’t present for the final stage of the seven-day trial, but she testified last week, insisting she had never heard Joyful Noise before hearing a beat producer Dr. Luke sent her. She maintains she heard the beat while on vacation in her native Santa Barbara, California, and wrote Dark Horse in just four hours.
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