Katy Perry Wins Appeal In “Dark Horse” Copyright Infringement Lawsuit

In 2019, a jury declared that Katy Perry’s 2013 song, which was produced by the now-canceled Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, sounded a bit too similar to a 2008 Christian Rap song called Joyful Noise by rapper Marcus Gray. The jury ordered Katy to pay Marcus $2.8 million. Katy appealed. That verdict was overturned by a judge a year later. Marcus appealed that appeal and the verdict is once again in! And Katy Perry is once again victorious. Cut to the nuns who were in a legal fight with Katy a few years ago checking their prayer connection to God because they were definitely praying for their nemesis to lose that shit.

In case you need a refresher, here’s a side-by-side of the songs:

Variety says that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard the case and sided with Katy and upheld the District Court’s decision to overturn a jury’s 2019 decision that Katy is a Kopy Kat.

In 2019, a Los Angeles jury found Perry liable for infringement, but the verdict was overturned a year later when a judge ruled that the eight-note “ostinato” Perry allegedly copied lacked the “quantum of originality” to warrant copyright protection.

Gray appealed the decision in October 2020, writing in a brief about the incriminating similarity of timbre between the songs, and arguing against the musicologists’ use of databases of melodies to determine instances of similarities in previous works. On March 10, 2022, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s overturning the initial jury verdict.

She is Katy Perry–Hear her roar! No nun, nor Christian rapper shall stand against her! Billboard reports that the Ninth Circuit said in their decision that Marcus’ lawsuit was seeking an “improper monopoly” over some basic musical elements. Translation: Bitch, you ain’t that original!

“The portion of the Joyful Noise ostinato that overlaps with the Dark Horse ostinato consists of a manifestly conventional arrangement of musical building blocks,” the appeals court wrote. “Allowing a copyright over this material would essentially amount to allowing an improper monopoly over two-note pitch sequences or even the minor scale itself.”

Technically, Marcus could take this case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, but it seems unlikely that you’ll see SCOTUS judges bopping and swaying their asses to Dark Horse while hearing the case.

Well, I guess Katy is done with this lawsuit for good now. But I wonder, when will the country of Egypt sue her over the music video for Dark Horse which is actually more offensive and less culturally sound about Egyptian mythos than Tom Cruise’s remake of The Mummy? Honestly, Katy should’ve hired Demi Lovato to be a consultant on the Dark Horse video since Demi is obviously a renowned Egyptologist.

Pic: BauerGriffin/INSTARimages