Katy Perry's "black horse" infringes earlier work, jury concludes – Variety

Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" in 2013 violated the song "Joyful Noise" by Christian rap artist Marcus Gray, aka Flame, a Los Angeles jury discovered on July 29th. This decision followed a week – long trial in a downtown Los Angeles civil court. LA which included an appearance of Perry herself, who testified for 35 minutes.

In his testimony, Perry stated that co-authors Dr. Luke (Lukas Gottwald) and Cirkut (Henry Walter) had brought him the instrumental track of the song, suggesting that both could have included elements of "Joyful Noise" In the song without Perry's knowledge.

Emmanuel Lambert Jr., another actor of 'Joyful Noise', whose stage name is Da Truth, said the song had been a major success in the Christian musical genre and that it was widely available on the services of streaming. Dark Horse "writers for hearing it.

During Perry's testimony, his lawyers tried to read the audio of "Dark Horse", but were upset by technical difficulties. Showing her characteristic sbad, Perry proposed to perform the song live, under the laughter of people gathered in the courtroom.

Perry's lawyers also argued that the musical phrase was too common and too brief to be protected by copyright, but the nine-person jury disagreed and handed the win over to the plaintiffs. (Perry, who is on vacation, was not in the courtroom for the verdict.) The penalty will be determined by determining the dollar amount owed to stakeholders of "Joyful Noise."