Katy Perry Ordered To Pay Up $550K After Superhit "Dark Horse" Found Heavily Copied The Tune

A federal jury in LA found the singer of the superhit in 2013 Dark Horse Katy Perry, Dr. Luke and 7 others responsible in the copyright infringement case. In detail, though Katy Perry claimed she wrote the song after she heard the beats given by Dr. Luke, it was founded heavily copied the tune from song Joyful Noise of rapper Flame.

The song then was uploaded to Youtube in 2008 but Karry Perry insisted she never heard of his song before. However, on the first day of trial, when Katy Perry failed to testify herself as the singer couldn't present the instrumental track which was first brought to her by Dr. Luke.

Nevertheless, her lawyer maintained the song and the beat are derivative, therefore the beat is too general term to say it can be protected by copyright.

Katy Perry's attorney said.

Now as the singer and her collaborator founded guilty in the copyright case, they are required to pay up $2.7 million for their violation. According to the report, the Dark Horse singer has to pay $550,000 while Capital Records has to compensate $1.2 million.

However, since Katy Perry song was released in 2013, she has benefited $3.2 million while her label collected a whopping amount of $31 million from the song.

In fact, rapper Flame whose real name Marcus Gray has been pursuing the matter in court since 2014 when he first filed a claim in which he accused the singer and her company has heavily stolen Joyful Noise's underlying beat. 

Marcus Gray's lawyer said.

Also, the Christian rapper claimed his reputation was damaged significantly in his community because he unexpectedly involved with the occult themes in Dark Horse's video and lyrics.