It's been six years since the song "Dark Horse" conquered the charts in the USA. The song earned Katy Perry a Grammy nomination and was one of the most popular from her album “Prism.” But shortly afterwards, a rapper complained that parts of his Christian song “Joyful Noise” were copied. Five years later, the court found the singer, producers and songwriters guilty. The Perry team was sentenced to a heavy fine: they are now expected to pay $2.5 million.
Katy Perry copied parts of a Christian song for her song
The procedure was very complicated. As well asthe singer, as well as the producers and the songwriters testified in court. The team claimed that they had never heard rapper Flame's Christian song. But the plaintiff's lawyers were able to clearly prove that his song was very popular at the time. It had several million views on YouTube alone. Katy Perry herself sang in a gospel choir at the beginning of her career. The jury therefore assumed that they were familiar with Christian songs. It's entirely possible that she and her producers had heard the song before and were inspired by it.
Copyright disputes are not uncommon in the US: George Harris, Michael Bolton, Pharrel and Robin Thicke have all been fined.Ed Sheeransettled a similar copyright dispute out of court. The main problem is determining similarities between the songs. In the USA, a jury decides, and they certainly only have limited knowledge of sheet music and songs. That's why experts testify in court.
