The singer was accused of copying the megabit from a Christian artist
American pop star Katy Perry has won a multi-million dollar legal case after she was accused of copying a Christian rap song with her hit Dark Horse.
The verdict overturns a decision by a jury in July 2019 that ordered her to pay £2.3m ($2.8m) in damages to Marcus Gray (AKA Flame) for plagiarism.
The artist claimed that her song, which hit number one in the US and number four in the UK, was a copy of his song Joyful Noise.
However an appeal verdict on Wednesday found that jury had reached the wrong decision on the origins of the song.
‘Ludicrous’ decision
In her decision, US district judge Christina A Snyder said the sequence of notes was “not a particularly unique or rare combination”.
“A relatively common eight-note combination of unprotected elements that happens to be played in a timbre common to a particular genre of music cannot be so original as to warrant copyright protection,” she wrote.
The judge drew on comments by one of Gray’s own witnesses, musicologist Todd Decker, who labelled the original decision “ludicrous”.
Perry’s lawyer Christine Lepera said that Flame was “trying to own the basic building blocks of music”.
She said the verdict was “an important victory for music creators and the music industry”.
Musical copyright rulings
The decision may not be the end of the row for who owns the song, however.
Judge Snyder said that if an appeals court disagreed with her ruling, she would grant a new trial. Flame’s legal team have already indicated they intend to appeal.
The furore comes a week after a ruling on Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven was overturned by the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
That case involved major questions about whether it is possible to copyright basic musical motifs.
The verdict, which was in Led Zeppelin’s favour, was quoted in Judge Snyder’s ruling on Dark Horse.
This could be good news for Ed Sheeran, who is accused of copying elements of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On in his song Thinking Out Loud. His case was put on hold awaiting the outcome of the Stairway to Heaven ruling.
