A jury has found that Katy Perry’s 2013 hit Dark Horse improperly copied a 2009 Christian rap song.
The decision came five years after Marcus Gray and two co-authors first sued, alleging Dark Horse stole from Joyful Noise, a song Gray released under the stage name Flame.
A jury will now decide on how much he is owed for the copyright infringement.
Gray’s lawyers argued that the beat and instrumental line featured through nearly half of Dark Horse are substantially similar to those of Joyful Noise.
Katy Perry and the song’s co-authors, who include producer Dr Luke, denied they had ever heard the song.
The singer’s lawyer claimed the similar sections of Dark Horse represent the kind of simple musical elements, and that the case would hurt music and all songwriters.
Speaking during the closing arguments, Christine Lepera said: “They’re trying to own basic building blocks of music, the alphabet of music that should be available to everyone.”
However, Gray’s lawyers had only to demonstrate that Joyful Noise had a wide circulation and could have been heard by Katy and her writing team, and noted that it had millions of plays on YouTube and Spotify, and that the album it came from was nominated for a Grammy.
Katy brought laughs during the case’s second day in court when her lawyers were having technical troubles getting Dark Horse to play in the courtroom.
“I could perform it live,” she said.
She was not present for the reading of the verdict on Monday, while Gray declined to comment following the verdict.
Dark Horse – a hybrid of pop, trap and hip-hop sounds that was the third single of Katy’s 2013 album Prism – spent four weeks on top of the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 2014, and also earned her a Grammy nomination.
