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A Los Angeles jury has found that the 2013 hit infringed on a previous work.

2013 hit “Dark Horse” infringed on the song “Joyful Noise” by Christian rap artist Marcus Gray, aka Flame, a Los Angeles jury found on July 29. The decision followed a week-long trial in Los Angeles civil court in downtown L.A. which included an appearance by Perry herself, who testified for 35 minutes.

In her testimony, Perry said that co-writers Dr. Luke (Lukas Gottwald) and Cirkut (Henry Walter) brought her the song’s instrumental track, which suggests the two could have included elements of “Joyful Noise” in the song without Perry’s knowledge.

Another cowriter of “Joyful Noise,” Emmanuel Lambert Jr., whose stage name is Da Truth, said the song had been a significant hit in the Christian music genre and is widely available on streaming services, thus it would have been easy for the “Dark Horse” writers to have heard it.

During Perry’s testimony, her attorneys attempted to play audio of “Dark Horse” but were thwarted by technical difficulties. Showing her characteristic sass, Perry offered to perform the song live, to laughter from the people assembled in the courtroom.

Perry’s attorneys also argued that the musical phrase is too common and brief to be protected by copyright, but the nine-person jury disagreed, handing the victory over to the plaintiffs. Penalty will be decided on Tuesday, June 30 determining the dollar figure owed to “Joyful Noise” stakeholders.

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i think the jury got it wrong... ive never heard that track before... AT OILS!!!

getxxxx said:

i think the jury got it wrong... ive never heard that track before... AT OILS!!!

The public hearing a song or its popularity doesn't make the claim less valid. Flame's song exists, is copyrighted, and released. You can easily find it on Spotify.

And it does share a lot of similarities. Sometimes a melody or chord progression is easily copied. There are only so many combinations of notes. But the keyboard hook, and a deep-voice drop break in the song are almost identical. There are just too many similarities for this one.

They both sound commonplace. But best believe Katy keeps her ear to Christian music so it is not a stretch to say she heard it and was, ahem, inspired.

Hated that song anyway. The VIDEO, OTOH, was a different affair - fucking Fastastic!!