In one of a seemingly mundane series of copyright lawsuits against big-name stars, pop sensation Katy Perry has won her appeal in a lawsuit over her 2013 hit song “Dark Horse.”
Rapper Flame had argued that Perry plagiarized one of his works, but a judge has now ruled that a victory for Flame would set a precedent that would “limit musical creativity”.
As a result, the musician won’t have to pay nearly $3 million to Flame (born Marcus Gray), who claimed his track stole an eight-note ostinato (or repeated musical phrase) from his 2009 track. , “Joyful Noise”. ”
Gray originally sued Perry and Capitol Records in 2016 and was initially awarded $2.8 million in a jury verdict three years later. But Perry has since appealed and a federal district court judge overturned the verdict, The Guardian reports.
This judge ruled that Gray was aiming to claim an “inappropriate monopoly” on “musical building blocks”.
The new ruling reads: The ostinatos in the songs of Perry and Gray “consist entirely of common musical elements, and…the similarities between them do not result from any original combination of those elements.”
The judge went on to say that allowing copyright in the music would be “allowing an inappropriate monopoly over two-note pitch sequences or even the minor scale itself, particularly in light of the limited number of expressive choices available when it comes to an eight”. -note the repeated musical figure.
Other big-name artists who have recently faced copyright infringement lawsuits include Dua Lipa (twice) and Ed Sheeran, to name a few. Read about each of those HERE and HERE.
And check out the Perry and Flame songs in question below.