Article By Rebecca Johnson // EEW Magazine Online // Lawsuits

In 2019, St. Louis-based Christian rapper Marcus Gray, known as Flame, won a $2.78 million lawsuit against pop star Katheryn Hudson, known as Katy Perry. But in 2020, that victory was taken away.

A California federal judge found that Perry’s 2013 hit song “Dark Horse” did not infringe on the copyright of Gray’s 2009 hit song “Joyful Noise,” reversing the July ruling and handing over a big win to Perry, her label Capitol Records, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and others who worked on the pop anthem.

The ruling came Tuesday, March 17, when U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder determined that the defendants were not liable for infringement and wiped out the nearly $3 million reward.

Snyder came to this decision after reviewing the evidence and drawing the conclusion that Gray did not, in fact, satisfy what is known as the extrinsic test, requiring that a copyright plaintiff identify concrete elements based on objective criteria that the works are similar, says Hollywood Reporter.

In her opinion, which can be found in full here, she said that the “signature elements of the 8-note ostinato in “Joyful Noise” was not a “particularly unique or rare combination, even in its deployment as an ostinato.”

An ostinato is a continually repeated musical phrase or rhythm.

She further stated that "the sole musical phrase that plaintiffs claim infringement upon is not protectable expression, the extrinsic test is not satisfied, and plaintiffs' infringement claim — even with the evidence construed in plaintiffs' favor — fails as a matter of law.”

As previously reported by EEW Magazine Online, the original lawsuit was filed in 2014 and alleged that “Dark Horse” sullied the purity of “Joyful Noise,” causing it to be “irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery” featured in the song lyrics and video.

EEW Magazine Online has chosen to include the visuals in this post, particularly to give you a specific reference point for the complaint of occult and pagan symbolism the lawsuit mentions in Perry's "Dark Horse."

The reversal of Gray’s win comes seven months after the conclusion of a copyright trial that shocked the music world.