US singer Katy Perry and five employees and the record company have been convicted in a copyright dispute over the hit „Dark Horse“ for the payment of nearly $ 2.8 million (about 2.5 million euros). That was decided by a jury in Los Angeles, reported US media yesterday (local time).
The 34-year-old musician herself accounted for $ 550,000 and the record label nearly $ 1.3 million. The rest spread to involved songwriters.
Already on Monday, the jury had come to the conclusion that Perry copied parts of their 2013 hit from the song of a Christian rapper. According to the verdict, „Dark Horse“ contains elements of the song „Joyful Noise“ by the musician Marcus Gray from the year 2008. Gray, who is known under the stage name Flame, first filed a lawsuit in 2014 for copyright infringement against Perry.
Perry’s lawyers had said in the process, „Dark Horse“ was a completely original work. She did not even know the song of the rapper. The electronic beat of „Joyful Noise“ is so common that it can not be copyrighted at all.
