Katy Perry appealing “Dark Horse” decision
Capitol RecordsFollowing a court case that resulted in Katy Perry, her collaborators and her record company being ordered to pay nearly $3 million to a rapper in a copyright dispute over her hit “Dark Horse,” Katy and her team have now asked to appeal the verdict.
As you may recall, Christian rapper Marcus Gray won a $2.78 million judgement in July after a judge found similarities between the beat used in “Dark Horse” and the one used in Gray’s 2008 song, “Joyful Noise.” Katy’s share of that judgment was $550,000.
According to court documents obtained by Billboard, lawyers for Katy reiterated that Gray didn’t have a copyright for the beat in question, that he didn’t prove that Katy and her collaborators could have had access to “Joyful Noise” before they wrote “Dark Horse,” and that any commonalities between the songs were “indisputably commonplace.”
According to Billboard, the lawyers are also arguing that there’s no way to prove how much, if any, of the money “Dark Horse” song earned was directly a result of the song using the beat in question.
In addition, the lawyers accused one of the plaintiff’s witnesses, a musicologist, of giving “improper and highly prejudicial testimony.”
They want the judge to either throw out the verdict, order a new trial and/or reduce the amount of damages awarded to Gray, according to Billboard.
“Dark Horse,” from Katy’s album Prism, was released in September of 2013 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
