Katy Perry Will Appeal The “Dark Horse” Lawsuit

October 15, 2019 / Posted by:

Over the summer, Katy Perry squared off against a Christian rapper from St. Louis named Flame, and they were fighting over her 2013 song “Dark Horse.” A judge ruled that “Dark Horse” sounded way too similar to Flame’s song “Joyful Noise,” and Flame was awarded $2.78 million in damages. Katy has reportedly decided to appeal Flame’s win.

Variety says that on October 9th, documents were filed on behalf of the case’s defendants (Katy, Dr. Luke, and Capitol Records), asking California courts to either overturn the judgement or grant a new trial on behalf of “Dark Horse” vs “Joyful Noise.” The document argues they deserve another shot due to:

“…the legally unsupportable jury verdicts in this music copyright infringement case that are widely recognized within the music industry – and beyond – as a grave miscarriage of justice….The erroneous verdicts in this case and the precedent established thereby present serious harm to music creators and to the music industry as a whole.”

If that legal talk is confusing to you, it’s basically saying that the jury was wrong, it sets a bad example, and Lady Justice was done dirtier than Katy’s vocals with the autotune removed. How kind of Katy to look out for future victims of plagiarism-based lawsuits. What a saint! Are we sure she doesn’t deserve that convent?

The document also argues that “no reasonable factfinder” could conclude that “Joyful Noise” was popular enough to be on Katy’s radar, and thus be something she willfully and shamelessly ripped off.

“The few million views of ‘Joyful Noise’ on the Internet presented by Plaintiffs, over a period of five years, equals an undisputed ‘drop in the bucket’ in modern day view count statistics – and can hardly constitute widespread dissemination.”

The defendants also argue that Flame and his team never proved that Katy and her writing team hadn’t searched the internet for Christian artists to steal from.

“Plaintiffs had no proof that any of the ‘Dark Horse’ writers searched for Christian rap on YouTube or Myspace, as was Plaintiffs’ burden.”

And if that doesn’t stick, then they’re hoping a new trial might be granted based on a musical technicality.

“The pitch on Beat 7 of the ostinato in ‘Joyful Noise’ is a B, while the pitch on Beat 7 of Ostinato 2 in ‘Dark Horse’ is an A. The pitch on Beat 8 of the ostinato in ‘Joyful Noise’ is an A or an F, depending on the iteration. The pitch on Beat 8 of Ostinato 2 in ‘Dark Horse’ is an E.”

You can listen to the songs compared against each other in the original post on this situation.

Katy hasn’t said anything publicly about this lawsuit appeal. She has, however, been busy trying to promote her upcoming single, “Harleys in Hawaii“:

I know Katy really doesn’t like the implication that she’s a blatant rip-off artist, so she needs to delete this image of her in a vintage floral catsuit. Because once my great aunt’s rec room sofa pulls the cloudy yellow plastic cover off itself and sees what’s going on here, it will be promptly calling its lawyer.

Pic: Wenn.com

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